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1751

De Bestiis Marinis, or, The Beasts of the Sea (1751)

Georg Wilhelm Steller St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences

Walter Miller (Translator) Leland Stanford Junior University

Jennie Emerson Miller (Translator)

Paul Royster (Transcriber and editor) University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected]

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Steller, Georg Wilhelm; Miller, Walter (Translator); Miller, Jennie Emerson (Translator); and Royster, Paul (Transcriber and editor), "De Bestiis Marinis, or, The Beasts of the Sea (1751)" (1751). Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries. 17. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/17

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De Bestiis Marinis

or, The Beasts of the Sea

by

Georg Wilhelm Steller

Translated by Walter Miller Professor of Classical Philology Leland Stanford Junior University and Jennie Emerson Miller

Transcribed and edited by Paul Royster

Contents

ED BESTIIS MARINIS was published (in Translators’ Preface vi Latin) in Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientia- rum Imperialis Petropolitanae, Tom. II, ad annum De bestiis marinis 8 MDCCXLIX (Petropoli [St. Petersburg]: The Manatee 13 Typia Academiae Scientiarum, 1751), pp. 289– The Sea Bear 49 398. The Sea Lion 63 This English translation was published in The The Sea Otter 68 Fur Seals and Fur-Seal Islands of the North Pa- cific Ocean, edited by David Starr Jordan, Part 3 Works by Georg Wilhelm Steller 84 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899), pp. 179–218, as “Part VIII. — The Early Useful Links 85 History of the Northern Fur Seals.” Illustrations 86

Translators’ Preface

Steller’s work, published in 1751 in the memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg for the year 1749, is a posthumous publication. The greater part of the work was fin- ished in 1742, and Steller himself died, while on his way from Siberia to St. Petersburg, in November, 1745. He was the natu- ralist (a volunteer) of the Russian expedition sent out to explore the northwest coast of North America and to ascertain defi- nitely whether it was or was not joined to Asia, and to search for the imaginary island known as Compagnie Land. The following pages contain a translation of those parts of Steller’s report which treat of the Manatee, or sea cow (Vol. II, pp. 289–330), and the natural history of the sea bear (fur seal) (pp. 346–359), sea lion (pp. 361–366), and sea otter (pp. 382– 398). The measurements and descriptions of the last three are omitted, inasmuch as they can be made better and with more scientific accuracy in our own times. But as the sea cow is ex- tinct, and as nearly all knowledge of it is to be obtained from Steller’s account, that portion of his work is given in full. Circumstances have combined to render the work of transla- tion difficult; not only is Steller’s account written in the zoo- logical Latin of the eighteenth century, but, as printed, it con- tains errors and omissions due to the fact that it was published after Steller’s death, and consequently without revision. Finally, it has been necessary to rely on a type-written copy, the original not being accessible to the translator.1 Thanks are due to President David Starr Jordan and to Professor Oliver Peebles Jenkins for much kind assistance with the technical, scientific, physiological, and anatomical parts of the work. Walter Miller Jennie Emerson Miller

1 The Latin original may be seen online at the Niedersaechsische Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Goettingen (Goettingen State and University Library) http://www-gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/cgi- bin/digbib.cgi? PPN350003793

O ONE WHO HAS STUDIED various lands doubts that the vast ocean contains many animals which to- N day are unknown, and that there are very many re- gions in the ocean where the curious and venturesome inquiries of Europeans have not yet penetrated; and so no one has been able to examine their contents. Thus it stands with the animals of the sea as compared with the animals of the land. Some live anywhere and everywhere, and through long association come to vary their species in accordance with differences of climate and food, not only in respect to size and color, but also in re- spect to the softness and thickness of their hair; but when transferred to a different climate, after a long interval of time they lose again their specific difference and revert to the first. So European horses when transferred to Siberia become percep- tibly smaller and hardier; and, on the other hand, when taken to India or China they become so much slighter and smaller that after a lapse of time they form a peculiar species. Yakut cattle when transported to Kamchatka become not only larger, but more prolific; and this is the case also with cattle that are sent to the port of Archangel. With English sheep that are taken to Sweden on account of the excellence of their wool, not only the wool changes after a short time, but also their size. If one did 9 DE BESTIIS MARINIS OR, THE BEASTS OF THE SEA 10 not observe this, it would seem that the species of animals in- sorts of sea weeds not found everywhere, and on account of the creased gradually in Siberia alone; for example, the squirrels on structure of its body can not live everywhere even in shallow the Obi are large, and covered with long, ashy gray fur; Obdoric places. But the sea otter, although it lives upon crustaceans and squirrels are one-third smaller, and covered with short but shellfish, can not find this sort of food everywhere beneath a thicker fur; Bargusian squirrels are covered with black, and certain depth of water on account of its closed foramen ovale; and Werchoian squirrels are mottled with black and ash-colored fur. hence it inhabits the rocky, rugged, shallow shoals of America, All this difference, as far as concerns size and thickness of fur, is of the islands in the channel, and of the land of Kamchatka. The due to climate, and as far as concerns the color it is due to the sea lion and the sea bear are migratory animals, and seek the food. Where evergreen larches, or, as they are commonly called, recesses of the sea and uninhabited islands in the same way as spruce and pines, grow, there the fur is a bright, ashy gray; geese and swans, so that there they may get rid of their fat, where the larches are deciduous, there they grow with black fur. copulate, and give birth, and when that is done they return Among animals the seal (phoca) is the only one which lives home in the same way as birds. not only in every part of the ocean, but in the Baltic Sea, the The amphibious Bieluga, a most voracious animal, selects Caspian Sea, and lakes which have no communication with the those places where there are long inlets of the sea; they gener- sea, as in Lakes Baikal and Oron; it is found everywhere at all ally wander about very widely, where they can drive the fishes times of the year. Notwithstanding, this difference occurs, that together and devour them more quickly in larger numbers — the ocean seal (Phoca oceanica) is more common and is distin- such places as are at the mouth of the Ud and Ochotsk and the guished in color from all the rest; it is covered with muddy gray arm of the sea at the mouth of the river Olutora. The walrus, fur, and on the back of its body it has a large spot that is chest- from his love of ease, seeks out desolate and uninhabited places, nut colored and covers one-third of the whole hide. and because of his fatness selects a cold place in the midst of ice, Now, I divide seals into three varieties on the basis of size. and because he finds these conditions at any time of the year at (1.) The largest, which is greater in size than a bull, grows only the mouth of the river Obi, Yenisee, Lena, and Kolima, and in the eastern ocean from the degrees 56 to 59 north latitude, around Cape Tschutschi, he is fond of those regions. The right and is called by the Kamchatkans “Lachtak.” (2) Those of me- whale (balaena), because it is fond of peace, chooses those parts dium size are all as large as a tiger, and are marked with many of the sea less frequented by ships, and since those places are for smaller spots. (3) The smallest ones — the ocean seal, for ex- the most part in the north, whales live there and select those ample — are found in the Baltic Sea, as well as in the port of regions for sleep, for giving birth to their young, and for Archangel, in Sweden, Norway, America, and Kamchatka, and breeding. in fresh-water lakes. They are monochroüs; that is, of one color; Accordingly, the reason why other amphibious animals in- for example, those found in Baikal are of a silvery gray color. If habit not all but only some certain regions of the ocean, must be we inquire why this sort of amphibian alone lives in every ocean looked for in the nature of the animals themselves. For some the and lake, I reply, because it lives upon a sort of food which is to food that they eat, for others their love of ease, for others still be had everywhere in the world, and upon flesh. But the case of different characteristics fix their boundaries and determine their the sea cow (Manatee) is different. It feeds only upon certain dwelling-places. 11 DE BESTIIS MARINIS OR, THE BEASTS OF THE SEA 12 But all sea animals have something, either in appearance or In what order I shall next year examine the shores of the sea in habits, in common with land animals, on account of which near the mouth of the river Kolima time will tell. My zeal is even at first sight they are compared by the common people to fired by those mammoth skeletons and the slight accounts of these animals, and thus get their names. So the host of natural them. And I do not doubt that the American shores are to be- philosophers talk about bulls, horses, wolves, and, dreaming of come better known to us, and with them this wonderful subject allegories, bring in monks and other men. It has seemed to me as well. As long as things escape us and perish unknown with worth mentioning that Ruthenian sailors when they first saw our consent, and through our silence are counted as fabulous — the manatee called it “Korova Morskaia,” (Корова Морская) things which may be seen with little labor in the very land with exactly the same propriety as the English and Dutch called where we, with all our inquisitiveness, live — it is not strange it a “sea-cow;” “Sivutcha” (Сивуча) they called “sea-lion,” and that these things, which we are prevented from observing by ‘‘Kot” (Кошъ) “sea-bear.” Not noticing the criteria offered by the great sea that lies between, have remained to the present nature, they less appropriately called the “sea-otter” “Bobr Mor- time unknown and unexplored. In the farther confines of Asia skoi” (Бобоъ морской). But all these animals became known and the Russian Empire I learned that the “Suhac” of the only half a century ago; in fact, Marcgraf makes mention of the Scythians was regarded as fabulous. I also learned that in the sea otter, but somewhat briefly and obscurely. The navigator Desert of Azof, and in that where the Saporozkiensian Cossacks Dampier, a tireless explorer, speaks of the sea lion and the sea live, the one-horned goat bears the same name — an animal bear; and many learned men, and Dampier as well, mention the very common and very well known upon their tables. There is manatee. But I must admit that the accounts given by the schol- likewise a Scythian wolf, black in color, and described by Aris- ars are fragmentary and imperfect and for the most part fabu- totle as longer than the common wolf but with shorter legs, lous and false. Dampier, on the other hand, has by many exceedingly fierce and savage. There is also in the neighbor- parasangs1 excelled them with a most accurate description, as hood of Voronesch and Astracan an animal that barks like a good as could be expected from an unlearned man. dog. It is sly and bloodthirsty and will attack people lying But one must not suppose that these places do not contain asleep or steal whatever it can from the household stores. This more great and wonderful animals that are still unknown, be- maybe the hyena of ancient times. And I desire nothing more sides those which I shall describe. For if weather, time, and than that, after I have explored Siberia, the authorities may place had favored my desire I should have enriched natural his- think well to intrust to me the exploration of the deserts — tory with many curiosities of that sort, as indeed I desired when provided no one else undertakes it; and I hope that if my efforts I took the risk of this journey to parts so distant and unex- prove acceptable I may be sent into exile for several years on plored. Thus, for instance, I describe the traces of a certain un- their account, that I may spend there a long time, which I known animal upon the island of Shumagin, and I insert a prophesy will prove but too brief. sketch of a sea ape, and with this imperfect account I must con- tent myself and others.

1 parasang: ancient Persian unit of distance, estimated at 3.5 miles. 13 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 14

Inches, tenths Circumference of the head at the eyes ------48 0 THE MANATEE Circumference of the neck at the nape (nucham) ------82 0 Height of the end of the snout ------8 4 The following is a description of the manatee, or, as it is Circumference of the body at the shoulders ------144 0 called by the Dutch, Vacca marina (sea cow), by the English, “sea The greatest circumference about the middle of cow,” and by the Russians, “Morskaia Korova;” the description is the abdomen ------244 0 made from a female killed on the 12th of July, 1742, on Bering The circumference of the tail at the origin (insertio) Island, which lies in the channel between America and Asia. It of the fin ------56 0 had, according to the English scale of measurement, the fol- Distance between the extreme points of the caudal fin lowing dimensions: (this is the breadth of the fin) ------78 0 Inches, tenths Height of the fin ------8 8 Length from the extremity of the upper lip to the The whole length of the inner lip, which is villous extreme right cornu of the caudal fork ------296 0 and rough, like a brush ------5 2 From the extremity of the upper lip to the nares ------8 0 Width of the same ------2 5 From the narial septum (columna narium) to the anterior The width of the exterior upper lip, which stands angle of the eye ------13 5 obliquely to the lower jaw and is covered all over From the anterior angle to the posterior angle of the eye 8 with rather long, white bristles ------14 0 Distance between the eyes at the anterior angles ------17 4 Height of the same ------10 0 Distance between the eyes at the posterior angles ------22 2 The breadth of the lower lip, which is hairless, black, The breadth of the narial septum (columna narium) smooth, and slopes toward the sternum, and is at its base ------1 5 heart-shaped ------7 4 Height of the nares ------2 5 Height of the same ------6 8 Breadth of the nares ------2 5 From the lower lip to the sternum ------54 0 From the extremity of the upper lip to the angle of the The diameter of the mouth at the angle (oris froenum) - 20 4 mouth (oris froenum) ------15 5 From the pharynx to the end of the oesophagus ------32 0 From the extremity of the upper lip to the shoulder --- 52 0 The width, or rather length, of the stomach ------44 0 From the extremity of the upper lip to the opening The whole intestinal tract, from pharynx to anus -----5,968 0 of the vulva ------194 0 And so it is 20 ½ times as long as the whole animal. Length of the vulva ------10 2 From pudenda to anal sphincter ------8 0 Length of the tail from the anal sphincter to the Diameter of the trachea below the glottis ------4 2 region of the caudal fin ------75 5 Height of the heart ------22 0 Circumference of the head above the Width of the heart ------25 0 nostrils (supra nares) ------31 0 Length of the kidneys ------32 0 15 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 16

Inches, tenths with many cup-shaped prominences like stemless mushrooms Width of the kidneys ------18 0 (pezicas). This cuticle which surrounds the whole body like a Length of the tongue ------12 0 crust is frequently an inch in thickness; and it is composed of Width of the tongue ------2 5 nothing but tubules, in the same way as we observe in the Length of the nipples ------4 0 Spanish cane or Mambu of the Indians and Chinese (ac in arun- Width of the humerus ------14 5 dine videmus Hispanicove Mambu Indorum et Sinensium). The Length of the ulna ------12 2 structure of these tubules is perpendicular to the skin. Longitu- Length of the skull from nares to occiput ------27 0 dinally they can not be torn or separated from one another. The Width of the occiput ------10 5 tubules are implanted in the lower part of the skin; they are roundish, convex, bulbous, and hence pieces of the skin that are torn off from the cuticle are full of tubercles like Spanish bark, Description of the External Parts and the underlying cutis is excavated with a great many very small holes, like a thimble (netricum digitale), which were before This animal belongs practically to the sea, and is not amphibi- the receptacles of the bulbous tubules of the cuticle. Now, these ous, although some authorities have so narrated; but they have tubules rest upon one another very closely; they are tenacious, misunderstood the stories of some others who tell of its feeding wet, and tumid, and they do not appear when the cuticle is cut upon vegetation about the shores of the sea and rivers. But by horizontally, but the surface is smooth, as the hoofs of certain this was meant not the vegetation of the land, but seaweed that animals when they are cut. But as soon as it is hung up in pieces grows out in the water on the shore of the sea. This seemed and exposed to the sun and becomes dry, it has perpendicular quite an unwelcome fact (that it fed on seaweed) and most ab- fissures and can be broken like bark, and then this tubulous surd to Celsius Clusius, who had seen a whole hide stuffed with structure comes clearly to view. Through these tubes a thin, straw; but it is found to be so also in the case of the living beast serous mucus is exuded, in larger quantities on the sides and (strange as it is true), if one will but have regard to its form, about the head, and in smaller quantities on the back. When the movements, and habits. animal has lain for some hours upon the dry shore, the back be- It is covered with a thick hide, more like unto the bark of an comes dry, but the head and sides are always wet. ancient oak than unto the skin of an animal; the manatee’s hide Now, this thick cuticle seems given to the animal for two is black, mangy, wrinkled, rough, hard, and tough; it is void of purposes principally: (1) That, inasmuch as the animal is com- hairs, and almost impervious to an ax or to the point of a hook. pelled, for the sake of getting a living, to live continuously in It is an inch thick, and a transverse section of it is very like unto rough and rugged places, and in the winter among the ice, it ebony both in smoothness and in color. This exterior cortex, may not rub off the skin, or that it may not be beaten by the however, is not skin (cutis), but cuticle (cuticula); but in the dor- heavy waves and bruised with the stones, and when pursued it sal region it is smooth. From the nape to the caudal fin the sur- is protected by this coat of mail; (2) that the natural heat may face is uneven with nothing but circular wrinkles, but the sides not be dissipated in the summer by too profuse perspiration are exceedingly rough, especially about the head, and bristling (nimium transpirando), or completely counteracted by the cold of 17 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 18

winter. And that would be natural, for it has to live, not in the ture just like that of the whale, and it can be put to the same depths of the sea as other animals and fishes, but it is always uses. compelled in feeding to expose half of its body to the cold. In comparison with the huge mass of the rest of its body the I have observed in the case of many that were cast up dead head is small, short, and closely connected with the body; in upon the shore of the sea, that the cuticle had been broken off figure it is a square oblong, widening from the top toward the on one side or the other, and that that had been the cause of lower jaw. The top itself is flat and covered with a black cuticle, their death; and this happens principally in the winter time, exceedingly scraggly and a third part thinner than the rest of from the ice. the cuticle and more easily torn off. The head slopes from the And I observed many times in animals that had been cap- occiput to the nares and slopes again from the nares to the lips. tured and drawn on shore with a hook, that great pieces of cuti- The end of the snout is 8 inches high and grows rapidly thicker cle had been pulled off in consequence of the violent thrashing from the nose to the occiput. of its body and tail and its resisting with its front feet, and that The opening of the mouth (rictus oris) is not underneath (su- the broken piece of cuticle that covered the arms and caudal fin pinus), but in a line with the sides; but the exterior upper lip is was like a hoof; all this goes to make my opinion stronger. Cuti- so large, broad, and oblique to the angle of the mouth, and cle of exactly the same sort covers the whale (balaena), although lengthened out so much above the inferior mandible, that to one no mention is made of it by the authorities; and almost the who looks at the head alone the opening seems to be located whole of the cuticle was rubbed off from a whale that was underneath. washed up dead upon our island on the 1st day of August, for The opening of the month itself is not very large in propor- during several days it had been tossed about by the waves, this tion to the animal, nor is it necessary that it should be, as it way and that, and bruised upon the rocks before it came to our lives on seaweed. shore. The lips, both the upper and the lower, are double and di- While this cuticle is wet it is tawny black, like the skin of a vided into external and internal lips. smoked ham, but when it is dry it is wholly black. In certain The external upper lip, finishing the end of the snout animals it is marked with rather large white spots and zones, obliquely, is like a half circle; it is flat, tumid, thick, 14 inches and this color penetrates clear to the cutis. This cuticle about broad, 10 inches high, in color a glossy white, and overgrown the head, eyes, ears, breasts, and under the arms, where it is with a great many little hills or tubercles, from the center of rough, is thickly infested by insects, and it frequently happens each one of which grows a white, translucent bristle 4 or 5 that they perforate the cuticle and wound even the cutis itself. inches long. When this happens, large, thick, warty prominences arise from The internal upper lip is 5 inches long and 2½ inches wide. the lymph of the cutis, or from the broken glands that preserve It is everywhere detached from the external lip, and fastened to the oil, as it were, in the little cells, in the same manner as in it only at the base; it overhangs the palate, and it looks like a whales, and oftentimes make the above-mentioned places foul. calf’s tongue, all villous and rough like a brush. It closes the Under the cuticle lies the cutis surrounding the whole body. mouth firmly above; it is movable, and by its own motion serves This is 2 lines thick, soft, white, very firm in strength and struc- to tear off the seaweed and bring it into its mouth; for it feeds in 19 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 20

the same way as horses and cattle, by protruding its lips and the lips of both maxillae move, as do the lips of cattle. With bending them outward. these the submarine plants which they tear off from the rocks The lower lip is likewise double; the external lip is black, and with their arms are so cut off from the hard, uneatable roots and smooth, and without bristles; it is roughly heart-shaped and like stems that they seem to be cut off with the edge of a dull knife. a chin, if we may so call it; it is 7 inches wide and 6.8 inches When the tide comes in these roots and stems are washed high. ashore, and lying there in great heaps on the seashore they be- The internal lower lip is separated likewise from the exter- tray to the visitor the present quarters of these guests, inas- nal; it is villous and is not visible when the mouth is closed, be- much as the stems of sea plants are tougher and thicker than cause the external lip reaches out and covers it; and being set those of land plants, the lips are made much stronger and opposite the internal upper lip it closes the mouth firmly. harder than are the lips of any of the land animals; therefore the When the lower mandible is applied to the upper, the space lips are also inedible, and can not be softened by boiling or in which intervenes when both are closed is filled up with a dense any other way. The internal structure of the lips is so arranged array of very thick white bristles 1½ inches long. These bristles that when cut they are like a checkerboard, consisting of very prevent anything from falling out of the mouth while the animal small squares; there are countless very small, thick, red, rhom- masticates, or from being washed out with water which flows boid or trapezoid squares, with which others that are white, into the mouth and is driven out again through the opening tendinous, full of cells like network and containing liquid oil, when the mouth is closed. are interspersed in equal numbers. These lips when boiled in The bristles are as thick as a dove’s quill; they are white, water very easily yield a great amount of oil, and when this oil hollow inside, bulbous below, and, even without the aid of a mi- is tried out the white cells appear like so much tendinous net- croscope, they show clearly the structure of the human hair. work. The purpose of this structure seems to me to be a three- If the animal lies prone upon its belly, the end of its snout on fold one: (1) That the strength and density of the lips may be a line perpendicular from the nares to the lips is 8 inches high increased, and that they may not be so easily exposed to any and is rounded in front, like a ball, from the nose to the ends of danger from without; (2) that the heavy lips may be more easily the lips and also to the lateral regions of the upper jaw. It grows raised and moved, inasmuch as the origin and insertion of the thicker and increases rapidly in circumference. The external lips muscles (caput et caudae horum musculorum) are so disposed that are very prominent, thick and swollen, and perforated with a the origin of the muscles is set obliquely to the opening of the great many large pores, like a cat’s, from each one of which mouth, and the insertion of the muscles obliquely to the top of grows a strong white bristle; these bristles are perceptibly the head; so that with their beginnings and ends the lips make, stouter the nearer they are to the opening of the mouth itself. as it were, a wreath of muscles; (3) that by means of this struc- Of the bristles those were especially noticeable for thickness ture the lips may be moved with a sort of spiral motion, and which grow between the lips of either jaw. They take the place that, since the head on account of the continuous thick crust can of teeth in pulling off the seaweed and prevent anything from be moved only with difficulty, it may not be necessary for them falling out of the mouth while the animal masticates. The infe- to move the whole body as often as they wish to pull off the te- rior maxilla is shorter than the superior; it alone is movable, but nacious seaweed. 21 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 22

They masticate differently from all other animals; not with are very wide, wrinkled, and covered over with a nervous teeth, which they lack altogether, but with two strong white membrane, which is perforated with many black pores. From bones, or solid tooth masses, one of which is set in the palate each pore grows a bristle as thick as cobbler’s waxed-end, a half and the other is fastened in the inferior maxilla, and corre- inch long; they are easy to pull out, and they take the place of sponds to the first. vibrissae in other animals. The insertion itself, or connection, is entirely anomalous, The eyes are situated exactly half way between the end of and would be expressed by no known name; gomphosis we can the snout and the ears in a line parallel with the top of the nos- not call it, because the bones are not fastened in the maxillae, trils, or just a very little higher. They are very small in propor- but each is held by many papillae and pores, pores and papillae tion to so huge a body, being no larger than a sheep’s eyes. alternating, in the palate and in the inferior mandible. Besides, They are not provided with shutters, or lids, or any other ex- in front it is inserted into the papillary membrane of the inter- ternal apparatus, but protrude from the skin through a round nal upper lip, and at the sides in the grooved edge of the bone, opening, scarcely a half inch in diameter. The iris of the eye is and at the back, with a double process, into the palate and infe- black, the ball livid; the canthi of the eye are not seen except rior maxilla, and is in this way made firm. when the skin is cut away around the opening of the eye. At the These molar bones are perforated below with many little inner canthus of the eye there is a cartilaginous crest (precisely holes, like a thimble (netricum digitale), or like a sponge, in which like that of the sea otter), which, when necessity arises, covers the arteries and nerves are inserted in the same way as in the over the whole eye and takes the place of a nictitating mem- teeth of other animals. Above they are smooth and excavated brane adapted to warding off and removing any injury that with many winding, wavy canals, and between them are emi- might chance to fall while the animal feeds. This cartilaginous nences which in mastication fit into the canals of the corre- crest in the back part constitutes one wall of the lachrymal sac, sponding bone so perfectly that the seaweed (fuci) is ground and with which it is joined by a common nervous membrane. When mashed between them as between a fuller’s beams or between the lachrymal sac is cut a great amount of sticky mucus is found millstones. I have had a drawing made of these bones, which in its cavity. The sac itself would easily hold a chestnut, and will explain more clearly what is less intelligible from the de- inside it is enveloped in a glandular membrane. scription.1 The ears outside open only with a small hole, like the seal’s. The nose is situated in the farthest tip of the head, as in the There is not the slightest trace of an external ear, and the holes horse; there are two nostrils, and a thick cartilaginous column can be seen only by examining very closely; for the opening of 1½ inches wide between them. The nostrils themselves are 2 the ears can not be distinguished from the rest of the pores, and inches long and just as wide in diameter. They are flat, and would scarcely admit the quill of a chicken’s feather. The inter- stretch back with many curves or labyrinths. Inside, the nostrils nal canal of the ears is smooth and covered with a highly pol- ished black skin, and when the muscles of the occiput are sepa-

1 Tab. XIV, online at http://dz-srv1.sub.uni- rated from it, as they may easily be, it betrays itself by its own goettingen.de/sub/digbib/loader?ht=VIEW&did=D151404 color and can be seen.

23 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 24

The tongue is 12 inches long and 2½ inches wide; and is like place where they are joined on both sides to the vertebrae they that of an ox. It is pointed at the end and the surface is rough make a double hollow on the back. with short papillae like a file. It is so deeply hidden away in the At the twenty-sixth vertebra the tail begins, and continues fauces that to many the animal has seemed to be without a with thirty-five vertebrae. The tail grows perceptibly thinner tongue; for drawn as far forward as it may be by the hand, it toward the fin. It is not so much flat as rather somewhat quad- still can not be made to reach the froenum, but will fall short of rangular, for all the vertebrae of the tail have two epiphyses it by 1½ inches. If it were longer, as in other animals, it would [zygapophyses] and four processes. Of these the lateral proc- be in the way in mastication. esses are broad, flat, and blunt at the point. The spinous process The head, like the neck, is ill defined, and joins the body in on the dorsal side or spine (processus superior in dorso seu spina) is such a way that a line of distinction is nowhere visible, as is the sharpened; the lower one is a broad, flat bone, like unto a Greek case with all fishes; but what obscurely suggests a neck is lambda. This is joined by a cord to the main body of the tail and shorter by one-half than the head itself, and is cylindrical and is fastened to it with very strong ligaments and tendons. As a more slender than the occiput in circumference. Notwithstand- result of this quadruple position the muscles of the tail fill these ing, it is not only constructed with movable vertebrae, but has cavities of the vertebrae and the angles between the processes, its independent action, a motion observed in the living animal and so the tail itself gets the form of a square oblong with ob- only when it feeds; for it bends its head in the same way as cat- tuse angles. tle on dry land, but the thick and shapeless cuticle makes the For the rest the tail is thick, very powerful, and ends in a quiet or dead animal look as though it were provided with an very hard, stiff, black fin, which is not divided into rays, but immovable neck, for no trace of vertebrae is to be seen at all. solid, and is in substance like prepared whale-bone, and consists From the shoulders toward the umbilical region it grows of nothing but layers, one upon the other, as if one solid piece. rapidly wider, and from there on to the anus it again grows This fin is frayed out for a distance of 9 inches from the ex- rapidly slender; the sides are roundish and paunched like a belly tremity, and is something like the fins of fishes that are spined which is swollen with a great mass of intestines, and elastic and with a ruder sort of spines. The fin itself that ends the tail is 78 puffed up like an inflated skin, and diminishes in size from the inches wide or long, 7.3 inches high, and 1.5 inches thick, and is umbilical region toward the anus, and again from the mammae inserted in the muscles of the tail as if by gomphosis, or a trian- toward the neck. gular canal.1 When the animals are fat, as they are in spring and summer, The fin of the tail is somewhat forked, and both cornua, dif- the back is slightly convex; but in winter, when they are thin, ferently from the tail fins of larger sea fishes, as the shark and the back is flat and excavated at the spine with a hollow on ei- ther side, and at such times all the vertebrae with their spinous 1 There is an evident omission here, as these measurements would processes can be seen. give the animal an absurdly narrow tail, whereas we know from the The ribs rise on both sides in an arch to the back, and where references to the power of the animal, as well as from the figures that they are joined to the vertebrae of the back by amphiarthrosis, as have been preserved, that the flukes were broad and powerful. The they are in a man, they extend downward like a bow, and in the vertebræ and their muscles lie in the fibrous mass of the flukes as if driven in. — ED. [1899 note] 25 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 26

the like, are of the same magnitude. In this respect it agrees Now, this Platonic man, as the eminent John Ray was with the whale. And so the caudal fin is parallel with the sides, pleased in jest to call him, performs with these arms various as is the case of the phocaena and balaena, and not with the offices: with these he swims, as with branchial fins; with these back, as is the case with most fishes. With a gentle sidewise mo- he walks on the shallows of the shore, as with feet; with these he tion of its tail it swims gently forward; with an up-and-down braces and supports himself on the slippery rocks; with these he motion of the tail it drives itself violently forward and struggles digs out and tears off the algae and seagrasses from the rocks, to escape from the hands of enemies who are trying to draw it as a horse would do with its front feet; with these he fights, and in. when taken with a hook and dragged from the water upon dry The strangest feature of all, in which this animal differs from land he resists so vehemently that the cuticle surrounding these all other animals both of land and sea and from amphibia, is its arms is often torn and pulled off in pieces; and finally with these arms, or, if you please, its front feet; for two arms, 26.5 inches the female when smitten with the sting of passion, swimming long, consisting of two articulations, are joined immediately to prone upon her back, embraces her covering lover and holds the shoulders at the neck. The end of the humerus is joined to him and permits herself in turn to be embraced. the scapula by arthrodia. The two breasts are different from those of most other ani- The ulna and radius are like a man’s; the ulna and radius mals, but in place and form are exactly as in man; they are situ- terminate bluntly with tarsus and metatarsus. There are no ated one under each arm; and one breast is a foot and a half in traces of fingers, nor are there any of nails or hoofs; but the tar- diameter, convex, rough with many spiral wrinkles, full of sus and metatarsus are covered with solid fat, many tendons glands, very hard — harder than a cow’s — and without any and ligaments, cutis and cuticle, as an amputated human limb is intermingling fat. But the adipose tissue that surrounds the covered with skin. But both the cutis, and especially the cuticle, whole body rests upon them only with the same thickness as are much thicker, harder, and drier there, and so the ends of the everywhere else, but the cuticle is thinner there and softer, and arms are something like claws, or rather like a horse’s hoof; but more wrinkled, and the papillae are likewise surrounded with a a horse’s hoof is sharper and more pointed, and so better suited black cuticle with circular wrinkles, but soft. Under the arm to digging. On the back (supine) these claws are smooth and itself, or axilla, the breast hangs, and when the animal is in milk convex, but underneath they are flat and hollowed out in a way, the nipple is 4 inches long and 1½ inches in diameter; in those, and rough with countless very closely set bristles, half an inch however, which have gone dry, or have not yet given birth, it is long and hard like a brush. so short and contracted that it seems nothing more than a I have seen in one animal these claws divided into two parts, chance wart, for the breast is not swollen. like an ox’s hoof. The division, however, was no more than The milk is very rich and sweet, and in consistency is very marked, and that only in the cuticle; this happened more by much like sheep’s milk, and very often it was my wont to get mere chance than by the will of nature, and was the more easy the milk in large quantities from dead ones in the same way as and the more possible as the cuticle that covered the claws was from cows. The nipple is very much wrinkled and a little higher disposed on account of its dryness to crack. than the rest of the breast. When the glands are cut they give out milk which is like that which I collected by squeezing the 27 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 28

papillae. Ten or twelve lacteal ducts open into each papilla. The scarcely cut it with a knife. The ligaments of the uterus and of breasts when boiled are a little harder than beef, and give out the fallopian tubes had precisely the same structure as those of a the odor of game, but mild. horse. They come together after the human fashion, the male above The anus is situated 8½ inches below the pudenda. It is and the female below. The penis of the male is 32 inches long, closed by a sphincter that is not very tightly contracted. In di- and with its sheath is bound firmly in front to the abdomen, and ameter it is 4 inches wide. The sphincter is white; the inside reaches clear to the navel — in a word, it is very coarse and ob- coating of the rectal intestine is smooth, slippery, olive-gray, scene to look upon, very much like that of a horse, and ends just as in horses, where it is sometimes black, sometimes white with the same sort of a gland, only larger. spotted. The female pudenda lie 8 inches above the anus. The open- ing of the vulva is almost a triangle, and wider above, where the clitoris lies, and narrower toward the anus. The opening itself Description of the Internal Parts would without difficulty admit five fingers together. The clito- ris is about 1½ inches long. It is cartilaginous and surrounded I opened the heads of four animals, and with the greatest with a very strong, smooth skin, and is uneven, with many painstaking I searched for the stones, incorrectly so called, of short wrinkles that fold together. The skin is variegated with the manatee. But so far was I from being able to find anything yellow and white, and so is the vulva. The labia vulvae are very in the least like a stone or bone that from this I decided that rigid and hard. The urethra empties into the vulva about 5 either those bones were not found in all of them, or were, found inches from the opening of the vulva. Below this is stretched a only in certain climates, or, what seemed more probable, that strong, crescent-shaped membrane, partly muscular and partly Schröder and others who describe these bones as having the tendinous, which separates the vulva from the vagina uteri, form of a ball, had, like too superficial and untrustworthy com- properly so called, with a sort of vestibule, and makes a kind of pilers, given it this round form after the analogy of the bezoar hymen. But the aperture between the cornua of this membrane stone, and that they had never with their eyes seen stones or is so large that the penis of the male can without any difficulty bones of the manatee as they described; and so we should rather enter the vagina. The vagina itself is 9½ inches long and cov- understand that they meant the masticatory bones, or those ered with a very strong, fibrous membrane, which is ribbed lon- white tooth masses to be found in the palate and inferior max- gitudinally and hollowed out upon its surface with many fur- illa; and this was the more likely, as the description given by the rows; between these furrows are seen a great many glands not eminent Samuel von Dale in his Pharmacologia coincides with larger than a pin’s head, which secrete the mucus with which my own; and his description also corresponds to these mastica- the vagina is covered all over. Next appears the uterus itself, tory bones. For he gives, perhaps from autopsy (ex αυτοψια), spherical in shape, in size as large as the head of a cat. When I because he did not understand the mechanism of these bones, cut it open it was covered with mucus in the same way as the the following description: “The stone of the manatee is a white vagina, and wrinkled with a great number of folds half an inch crustaceous bone similar to ivory, taken from the head, and it is wide. The substance of the vagina was so hard that I could of various forms,” by which he no doubt meant to indicate the 29 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 30

openings and meanderings of various forms to be seen upon the as large as a man’s head, and grown fast to it something like a surface of both bones.1 large aneurism between the muscular and fibrous (nervosa) coat; The cranium is very solid; it has but little cerebrum, and the this gland opened through the villous coat with many pores and cerebrum is not separated from the cerebellum by any bony openings and exuded into the cavity of the stomach a great plate. Of the rest I could observe nothing striking. quantity of whitish liquid, in consistency and color like pancre- The oesophagus or gullet is very capacious. Inside it is sur- atic juice. I had as a witness of this curious phenomenon the rounded with a very tough, white, fibrous membrane, and with assistant surgeon, Bettge. What the character of this juice was I many perpendicular wrinkles and folds it goes to the stomach, discovered by a double chance experiment; when I inserted a and there, before it ends, it concludes with a large number of silver tube through the pores of the inner coat, in order to dis- little triangular appendices one line long, which turn back up- cover by blowing into them the excretory ducts, the tube came ward toward the oesophagus. The use of these is, I think, that out black, as is wont to happen when silver touches sulphurous they may hinder the reflux of the food back into the gullet, and acid. I observed the same thing when I ordered Archippus Ko- at first sight they refute the preposterous opinion that has been novalow, the helper of the assistant surgeon, to take out the held in regard to the animal’s being a ruminant. contents of the stomach with his hands, and when this was done The oesophagus is inserted into the stomach nearly at the a silver ring that he had upon his finger was stained with the middle, as in the horse and the hare. same color. The stomach is of stupendous size, 6 feet long, 5 feet wide, The inner coat of the stomach was perforated by white and so stuffed with food and seaweed that four strong men with worms half a foot long, with which the whole stomach, pylorus a rope attached to it could with great effort scarcely move it and duodenum, swarmed; and the worms had penetrated clear from its place and drag it out. into the cavity of the glands. The gland when cut poured out a The coats of the stomach could not by any means be sepa- great quantity of juice. After that I could not examine any more rated; together they were 3 lines thick. A very strange fat stomachs, because I lacked the necessary assistance; and with omentum 2 lines thick surrounds the stomach. In the upper part the few men I had I could not, if I found an animal lying any- it adheres firmly at the middle to the membranous coat of the where, turn it over upon its back; and therefore I am in doubt stomach; for the rest, it is detached and seems more to warm the whether this gland is a constant thing or rather the result of stomach with its own heat than to hold it in place. The inner some disease. coat of the stomach is white, smooth, and not wrinkled nor vil- The pylorus was so large and tumid that at first sight I took lous. But what was most peculiar, and perhaps incredible to it for a second stomach and was anxious to find the two others, many, is that I found contained in the stomach, and not far from too, because I thought the animal was a ruminant. But when I the entrance of the oesophagus into the stomach, an oval gland cut into the pylorus I was otherwise informed, and from its be- ing like the stomach I saw that it was the pylorus. But to my

1 These bones are undoubtedly the ear bones, and that Steller misfortune it happened that the pancreas along with the duct failed to find them is due to the fact that he looked for them inside the into the duodenum and the ductus choledochus were cut, for the cranial cavity. The ear bones of Rytina are not unlike those of the simple reason that the stomach could not be taken out whole existing Manatee. — ED. [1899 note] 31 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 32

with the liver on account of its great size, and besides, my assis- any open space. The thin intestines are smooth, rolled up in a tants, who had been hired for just one’ hour with tobacco, which great amount of fat; they are round and 6 inches broad in di- took the place of money, became tired of the work. Yet I recog- ameter. If only a very slight aperture should be made with the nized that the pancreas was divided into two lobes and com- point of a knife, the liquid excrement (a ridiculous thing to be- posed of many flat, rather large glands, and that it was, for so hold) would squirt out violently like blood from a ruptured vein; large an animal, comparatively small; for it did not extend in and not infrequently the face of the spectator would be length beyond 4 inches. drenched by this springing fountain whenever some one opened There are more intestines in this animal than in any other, a canal upon his neighbor opposite, for a joke. except, perhaps, the whale alone, which hitherto I have not been The coecum was very large, as was also the colon, and by a in a position to inspect. The abdominal cavity was so full that ligament that extended lengthwise on either side was divided the abdomen was tumid and swollen like an inflated skin. into many little cells. But the valve of the colon I could not find, Hence, when the common coverings and muscles of the abdo- search as I might. To be brief, the intestines were different from men were removed and the peritoneum received ever so slight a a horse’s in size and capacity alone, but not in structure. And so wound, the wind came out with such a whistle and hum as it is the final product of this workshop is so like the excrement of wont to come from an aeolipile. For the same reason the whole horses, in shape, size, smell, and color, and all other attributes, abdomen is covered with a very strong double, membranous, that it would deceive the most expert stable boy. And I will not fibrous peritoneum for holding in the intestines. The perito- deny that on the first days after our arrival on the island I was neum reaches from the os pubis to the sternum, and is attached ignominiously deceived; I considered it no slight marvel, but I on both sides to the false ribs, from each one of which strong did not make the boast to have found what the boys did in the tendons, spreading out in many rectilinear branches, run from beans (faba; fabula (?) ),when I found the stuff frozen together both sides to the linea alba; and when the muscles of the abdo- and so inexplicable (cimmelium). Now, I, not knowing from men on the surface of the peritoneum are removed the tendons whence it came, argued from utterly false premises to an abso- meeting each other and crossing each other make the surface of lutely true conclusion that America lay opposite this island and the peritoneum tessellated like a checkerboard, and present a not far away (for up to that time the continent had not been pleasing spectacle to the eye. Other like tendons grow from the seen on account of the autumnal fog). But since horses are not inner side of the ribs and are seen to intertwine (impexi) tightly kept in Kamchatka, but are kept in parts of America, the fact with the peritoneum on the inside, increasing its firmness as that the dung was brought over there whole and not dissolved, with horizontal processes. Both membranes run into a single was an unquestionable proof of the proximity of land. one in the middle about the linea alba, but toward the sides they The whole intestinal tract, from gullet to anus, when this are double. Augean stable was thoroughly cleansed, measured fully 5,968 When the peritoneum is cut the intestines gush out vio- inches, and so the intestines are twenty and a half times as long lently, and without any outside assistance they move from their as the whole living animal. original place, because they are found always so tightly stuffed The mesentery is exceedingly thick and half covered with a that from oesophagus to anus they make a solid pack without mass of little glands, varying in size from that of the acorn to 33 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 34

that of the walnut. The lacteal, as well as the lymphatic vessels, The thyroid gland is very large, and when cut it poured out I could not observe because of the opacity of the very fat, thick a large quantity of liquid of double consistency and color: that mesentery, although I searched while the intestines were still which came from the larger exterior glands when cut was of the warm, for the veins are only obscurely and darkly transparent, color of milk, but thicker than sheep’s milk, and sweet to the inasmuch as they are as thick as one’s finger. taste; that which came from the middle portion of the gland or A very strong, double membrane constitutes the pleura. In- receptacle for the gland was contained in a membranous sac of side this, one continuous muscle an inch thick is interposed and its own; it was glutinous and had the consistency of meal poul- covers both sides. tice; it was somewhat sweet, with a very slight taste of bitter, The urinary bladder, 2 lines thick, was very strong, but not and was yellowish-white in color. It occurred to me only in the larger than a man’s head, and smaller than the bladder of an ox. last animal that I opened to make a closer inspection of this The trachea is composed of long, cartilaginous circles or gland. I am very sorry that I did not think of it sooner, and take semicircles, but has an entirely anomalous structure. One con- the pains to have the trachea, with the gullet, heart, and the rest tinuous piece of cartilage is twisted into a spiral and covered of the viscera taken out entire. But it was not possible without with a strong continuous membrane, both inside and outside. the help of many men to do so with an animal so huge. If I had But the spirals of the trachea are not everywhere equal in been in a position to do that, I should have observed whether or breadth, but in some places the edge of the upper circle is hol- not it unloaded this liquid through some tube into a duct of its lowed out to receive the opposite eminence of the lower circle, own, or into the stomach, as Vercellonius thought, or some- and so makes it crooked. And so, by the help of this double where else. I saw the duct only after it was cut, but whither it membrane that encircles the trachea, the spirals are kept from led I neither saw nor do I wish to conjecture. being dislocated, either inside or outside. Through this mutual As to the heart it differs in many respects from the heart of intertwining the rings are prevented from being loosened later- all other animals: (1) In regard to situation, the apex of the ally. By this spiral structure the trachea is separated into heart stands in a line oblique to the sternum, the base in a line branches below the glottis and reaches to the bronchi, and is oblique to the back. (2) As to connection, the heart does not rest seen to be such in the very substance of the lungs; it is so con- against the mediastinum, but is detached on every side and has structed for no other reason, perhaps, than that by the continu- no mediastinum at all. (3) It has a pericardium (but this does not ity of these spirals the huge mass of lungs may be more easily envelope the heart closely) and a sac; but it forms rather a spe- lifted up in breathing; for neither muscles nor anything else cies of cavity in the thorax and lines the thorax. Toward the give so much help to the motion of lungs, which are situated in back and the base of the heart the pericardium is nearer to the the back. heart than it is anywhere else. When the animal is feeding, the The glottis is like that of an ox, but is closed by the epiglot- heart itself, with the pericardium, hangs not quite perpendicu- tis much more closely and firmly than is the case in the land larly but somewhat obliquely from back to sternum; and so quadrupeds, so the epiglottis is in proportion much thicker. The there the pericardium takes the place of a mediastinum. Lower diameter of the trachea below the glottis is 4.2 inches. down toward the abdomen the pericardium is fastened to the inner wall of the diaphragm, and with it constitutes one wall; 35 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 36

and so it rests against the pleura at the sides. (4) As to size, in which respect they differ from the lungs of birds, although when placed in a scale it weighed 34¾ pounds, and was from they agree with them in respect to their position in the back. base to apices 2 feet 2 inches long, and from the extremity of Either lobe is covered outside with a very strong membrane, one auricle to the other 2½ feet broad; and so it was broader and so if one should think only of the external structure and than it was long. (5) As to form, it was broad and thick, rather color of the lungs one would scarcely consider them to be lungs than long, and what was the greatest peculiarity of all it ended, at all. not like a top in one apex but, in accordance with the number of The liver consists of two very large lobes and a third of quite ventricles, in two apices. Now, this slit in the apex extends to peculiar form; the third is almost square and looks like a black- one-third the length of the heart, and from there on the two smith’s anvil. It is situated half way between the two larger apices coalesce in one and form the septum of the heart, dividing lobes, and is raised above them and lies immediately under the the ventricles. The left apex is just a little longer than the right sternum. Outside, the liver is covered with a very strong fibrous and thicker in circumference. The ventricles of the heart are membrane, so that it suggests anything but a liver. Through extended farther below the septum, each into its own apex. The this membrane, in the gibbous part, the branches of the coeliac chordae tendineae and the columnae carniae (cordis trabes) or vessels (venae celiacae) excessively tumid, shine through like a sulci (furrows) exceed the equipment of the human heart, not tree, blue in color. When this membrane was cut the substance only in size and strength but also in number. The valves are the of the liver appeared, in color a tawny yellow, like that of an ox, same in the pulmonary vein, the vena cava, the aorta, and the but externally soft and most delicate in structure, so that at the pulmonary artery, as in a man. The base of the heart is sur- touch it dissolved as if putrid under my hand. rounded with a great quantity of thick fat that is placed around The animal has no gall bladder. But the ductus choledochus, it like packing, distributed everywhere to the thickness of half like that of a horse, would easily admit five fingers together; and an inch. Below this the large coronary veins of the heart are so it was very capacious; it was half a line thick and very strong, seen, covered inside with little valves which I have never ob- whitish outside and yellow inside, and, opening into the duode- served anywhere else before in any other animal. With great num, it coalesces along with the pancreatic duct into one canal. care I searched for the foramen ovale and for the ductus arteri- The kidneys are hidden away in a cavity of the lumbar re- osus Botalli, but in vain. When I cut through the cavity of the gion on either side of the dorsal spine. They are 32 inches long pericardium I found it half full of liquid, so that even by this and 18 inches wide; they have the ordinary form of kidneys and quantity alone I was led to believe that this liquid was unnatu- are included in a very strong membrane; when this was re- ral (praeter naturalem), and that at the end it had been collected moved there appeared a great number of renules of the same into this cavity, from whatsoever source it may have been se- form, as in the seal and the sea otter, but in size they were much creted, in consequence of the slow and distressing death of the larger than these. They were 2 inches long and 1½ inches wide animal. on the surface, and they were pyramidal in form toward the in- The lungs are two very long, white lobes that extend to the terior. Each one of these lobules (renunculi) is provided with an middle of the abdomen, one on either side along the dorsal urethra, papillae, and artery of its own. The urethras form six spine. They are, however, detached, and not fastened anywhere, larger principal branches, and at last carry down the urine 37 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 38

through one canal to the urinary bladder. But the pelvis is like The body of the vertebrae of the neck is narrow, in general an elephant’s. structure like the vertebrae of the horse’s neck. How much they I overlooked the suprarenal capsules (capsulae atribilariae), differ in certain special features I will not indicate, as I have no and also the spleen, and likewise the internal organs of genera- books nor a horse’s skeleton, nor should I trust my memory or tion, and many other things which occurred to me in order only imagination. when I had no longer time nor opportunity for making full ob- The spines of the dorsal vertebrae are sharp and broad, and servations. in lean animals, as there is no thick cuticle or thick adipose tis- sue in the way, they are perfectly visible. The vertebrae of the back in the region of the stomach and Brief Description of the Bones liver are ridged on the inside, but all the rest are rounded and lack this sharpened prominence. As to the bones of the manatee, the bones of the head in respect The vertebrae of the tail have each four processes; the lateral to strength and firmness are like those of a horse, but in respect processes are long and broad; the superior process is like the to size and thickness they surpass the bones of all animals of the lateral process in width but is shorter; and the inferior processes land. (chevrons) are single bones like the Greek lambda in shape, and The bones of the head taken together are not larger than a are fastened to the body of the vertebrae by a cord and held horse’s head, nor are they very different in respect to form and firmly with very strong ligaments. All the vertebrae are joined articulation. together longitudinally by a great number of very strong, broad The cranium is anteriorly entire, without any suture, ex- tendons, and are everywhere so covered up that because of them tending toward the nasal bones1 in two hard processes, and the bones can not be seen. joining the nasal and maxillary bones by an arthrodia, while the The five pairs of true ribs are joined to the sternum with car- nasals join the maxillaries by ginglimus. The nasal bones meet tilage. Both the true and the false ribs are all solid and very in a rough suture. The temporal bone joins the cranium by su- heavy and thick. ture, but the occipital by coalescence, being very hard and al- The sternum in the upper portion where the ribs are fas- most like rock. The inferior maxillary in adults consists of one tened on is cartilaginous; in the lower portion toward the notch bone, in calves of two. of the heart (scrobiculum cordis) it is bony to a distance of a foot The head from the nares to the occiput is 27 inches long, and and a half. at the occiput 13½ inches wide.2 In place of the innominate bone of the hip there are two There are sixty vertebrae in all: six in the neck, nineteen in bones, one on each side in size and form like the ulna of the hu- the back, and thirty-five in the tail. man skeleton, and joined with very strong ligaments to the There are five pairs of true ribs and twelve of false. thirty-fifth vertebra on one side and to the os pubis on the other. It has no clavicles.

The arms consist of two bones, tarsus and metatarsus. 1 Really the frontals. — ED. [1899 note]

2 Given in the previous table as 10½.— ED. [1899 note] 39 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 40

ignorance and dislike for the work they would tear everything Description of Its Habits and Nature to pieces, and acted according to their own inclinations; so the injury they wrought and the loss they caused ought to be com- I should have abstained from an extended description of this mended in that they did not desert me entirely. Not a single gut animal if I had not observed that there are in existence some could I get out entire, nor unfold if I had got it out, so as to do brief and imperfect histories of the manatee, swarming with fa- anything worth while; so that for all the pleasure I got from bles and false theories after the manner of the last century and certain observations I had twice as much trouble and annoyance the century before, in which the writers of natural history saw in consequence of those useful things which I had to leave alone. only through a lattice what they might have seen with their So I beg of my kind readers, when they have finished reading eyes; when investigating the unknown habits of animals, their this feeble description, that they will judge it by my will and my character, and a thousand other things that have nothing to do zeal rather than by the circumstances. with their subject, they only involved the best known facts in I had prepared a skeleton of a manatee calf, and I had taken more than Cimmerian darkness. the cutis with the cuticle separated from it and stuffed it with Therefore I have endeavored to give a clear and succinct idea grass to bring it home with me; but when I saw that on account of its external form and that of the structure of its internal parts of the small size of our craft this was impossible I wanted to by stating its agreement and disagreement with others, next by bring with me at least the spoils (skin), but even this wish was explaining the mechanism and nature of the animal, and after vain. I intended to do the same with the sea lion, the sea bear that the use of its parts for food, medicine, and other things, and and the sea otter, but I was reckoning without my host, for in finally to add in perfect truth what I observed with my own Kamchatka there is no hope of getting everything. eyes in regard to the movements, nature, and habits of the liv- But let me cease from narrating my complaints and my hin- ing animal. drances. The manatee is not the sea cow of Aristotle, for it Various things combined to cause me many disappointments. never comes upon dry land to feed. And it is of little conse- The weather at the time when the animals were captured was quence whether it is the same or not, for it is not this animal almost constantly rainy and cold; my observations had to be that he described; indeed, he never saw it and never heard any- made in the daytime; then there were the tides of the sea; and thing about it to tell. In the second place, I remark that Lopez the droves of blue foxes (isatides) would spoil everything with Francisco Hernandes themselves saw the animals, and that their teeth and steal from under my very hands; they carried Clarissimns Clusius and Ray, misinformed by them, have af- away my maps, book, and ink when I was studying the animal firmed many things of the animal that are inconsistent with and worried me when I was writing; the great size of the animal truth and autopsy. itself and the bulk of its parts were also a hindrance, as I had to 1. The animal has no hair at all that can properly be called be both observer and workman, as all the rest were anxious hair. It has bristles rather, or hollow quills, and these are found about the construction of a ship and our liberation from the is- only around the mouth and under the feet. land. At my own expense I could hire them for barely an hour at 2. The head of this animal is not that of a calf, as Cl. Clusius evening time for some of the simpler assistance, and in their says; not that of an ox, as Hernandes was pleased to describe it; 41 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 42 but in the character of its covering it is like no other animal, but These animals are fond of shallow sandy places along the has its own peculiar appearance. seashore, but they like especially to live around the mouths of 3. The feet are entirely without claws, but skin covers them rivers and creeks, for they love fresh running water, and they as it does the bone of an amputated limb, so that the animal always live in herds. They keep the young and the half-grown moves upon a skin that is rough with bristles. before them while they feed, but they are careful to surround 4. As to the fact that Hernandes attributes to this animal them on the flank and rear and always to keep them in the mid- nails like those which men have, in order to make it more like dle of the herd. When the tide came in they came up so close to the Platonic man, that is equally false, for the animal has no fin- the shore that I often hunted them with my stick or lance, and gers at all any more than nails, unless perchance the hoof of a sometimes even stroked their backs with my hand. If they were horse, to which it bears a certain resemblance, impresses anyone badly hurt, they did nothing but withdraw to a distance from as being like a human nail. the shore, and after a short time they would forget their injury 5. And so, by the way, it is evident even from this how much and come back. Most commonly whole families live together in obscurity envelops this subject if we start with false premises one community, the male with one grown female and their ten- and arrive at worse conclusions. For instance, all authors with der little offspring. They appear to me to be monogamous. The one consent agree that this animal ascends rivers and feeds young are born at any time of year, but most frequently in au- upon the grass that it may manage to get along the banks, for tumn, as I judged from the new-born little ones that I saw about they may perhaps have heard from the people that it feeds on that time. From this fact, as I noticed that they copulated by herbs; but those are not land herbs, but seaweeds. preference in the early spring, I concluded that the foetus re- Nor does the statement have the appearance of truth, that mained more than a year in the womb. From the shortness of they are in the habit of lying upon the rocks and of coming up the [uterine] cornua (ex cornuum brevitate), and from the fact on the land, even if I say nothing of the fact that the structure of that there are only two mammae, I infer that they have but one the animal is totally unfitted for moving on dry land. Indeed, it calf, and I have never seen more than one with the mother at a happened that as the tide went out the waves receded from un- time. der one of the animals sound asleep and left him high and dry These animals are very voracious and eat incessantly, and upon the shore; but he was helpless and unable to get away, a because they are so greedy they keep their heads always under pitiable object, at the mercy of our cudgels and axes. water, without regard to life and safety. Hence a man in a boat, That this animal should be tamed seems more likely than do or swimming naked, can move among them without danger and the anecdotes that are given of its remarkable sagacity, since select at ease the one of the herd he desires to strike — and ac- even the untamable can be tamed through its stupidity and complish it all while they are feeding. When they raise their greediness. It happened to me on one unlucky occasion that I noses above the water, as they do every four or five minutes, could watch the habits and ways of these beasts daily for ten they blow out the air and a little water with a snort such as a months from the door of my hut, and I will briefly note down horse makes in blowing his nose. As they feed they move first the observations that I made with great care. one foot and then the other, as cattle and sheep do when they graze, and thus with a gentle motion half swim and half walk. 43 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 44

Half of the body — the back and sides — projects above the As soon as this was done, thirty men standing on the shore with water. While they feed, the gulls are wont to perch upon their the other end of the rope in their hands held the animal, and in backs and to feast upon the vermin that infest their skin, in the spite of its frantic efforts at resistance they dragged him labori- same way as crows do upon the lice of hogs and sheep. The ously toward the shore. The boat was held steady by another manatees do not eat all seaweeds without distinction, but espe- rope, and the men wore the animal out by constant blows, until, cially (1) Crispum Brassicae Sabaudicae, with cancellate leaf [sea- tired and rendered thoroughly passive by the spears, it was fin- cabbage]; (2) that which has the shape of a club; (3) that which ished by their knives and other weapons and drawn to land. has the shape of an ancient Roman shield; (4) a very long sea- Great pieces were cut from the animal while still alive, but all weed with a wavy ruffle along the stalk. Where they have that he did was to work his tail vigorously and to brace himself stopped, even for a day, great heaps of roots and stems are to be with his fore feet, so that great pieces of skin were often torn seen cast upon the shore by the waves. When their stomachs are off. Besides, he breathed heavily, as with a groan, and the blood full some of them go to sleep flat on their backs, and go out a from the wounded back spurted up like a fountain. As long as he distance from the shore that they may not be left on the dry kept his head under water the blood did not flow out, but as sand when the tide goes out. In winter they are often suffocated soon as he raised his head to breathe the blood leaped forth by the ice that floats about the shore and are cast upon the anew. This happened because the lungs, being situated at the beach dead. This also happens when they get caught among the back, were wounded first, and as often as they were filled with rocks and are dashed by the waves violently upon them. In the air they increased the force of spurting blood. From this I have winter the animals become so thin that, besides the bones of the concluded that the circulation of the blood in this animal, as in spine, all the ribs show. In the spring they come together in the the seal, is in a double fashion — in the open air, through the human fashion, and especially about evening in a smooth sea. lungs, but under water, through the foramen ovale and ductus But before they come together they practice many amorous arteriosus, although I did not find both. But I think it happens preludes. The female swims gently to and fro in the water, the that they breathe differently from fishes, so that they can better male following her. The female eludes him with many twists swallow solid food, rather than for the sake of promoting circu- and turns until she herself, impatient of longer delay, as if tired lation (propter deglutitionem solidorum potiusquam propter cir cula- and under compulsion, throws herself upon her back, when the tionem promovendam). male, rushing upon her, pays the tribute of his passion, and they The full-grown, very large animals are more easily taken rush into each other’s embrace. than the young ones, because the young move about far more Their capture used to be effected with a large iron hook vigorously, and even if a whole hook should be fixed in one of whose point resembled an anchor’s fluke. The other end was them it can get free by tearing the hook out of the skin. We saw secured by a very long, stout rope to an iron ring. A strong man this done more than once. took this hook and entered the boat with four or five others, and But if one animal is caught with the hook and begins to while one held the rudder three or four rowed gently toward plunge about rather violently those near him in the herd are the herd. The spearman stood in the prow of the boat holding thrown into commotion as well and endeavor to assist him. To the hook in his hand, and struck as soon as he was near enough. this end some of them try to upset the boat with their backs, 45 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 46

others bear down upon the rope and try to break it, or endeavor perience that men are dangerous to them. It was the same way to extract the hook from the back of their wounded companion with the otter, seal, and blue fox (Isatis), which lived in this de- with a blow from their tails, and several times they proved suc- sert island and never saw a man before and never were dis- cessful. It is a very curious evidence of their nature and of their turbed while lying at their ease. They were slain with no trou- conjugal affection that when a female was caught the male, after ble at all when we first came to Bering Island, but now they trying with all his strength, but in vain, to free his captured have become just as wild as those living in Kamchatka, and take mate, would follow her quite to the shore, even though we flight at once as they discover, not only with their eyes, but struck him many blows, and that when she was dead he would even with their sense of smell, the approach of an enemy. sometimes come up to her as unexpectedly and as swiftly as an It sometimes occurred that these animals were cast up dead arrow. When we came the next day, early in the morning, to cut by storms around the cape called Kronotskoi, as well as about up the flesh and take it home, we found the male still waiting Avatcha Bay. Because of the food they eat they are called by the near his mate; and I saw this again on the third day when I inhabitants, in their language, “Kapustnik” (Kraut Esser; weed came alone for the purpose of examining the entrails. eaters); this I learned after my return in 1742. As to voice, the animal is dumb and utters no sound, but Now, I must tell the uses to which the parts of this animal only breathes heavily and seems to sigh when wounded. I will are put. The skins, which are very thick, firm, and tough, are not venture to assert how much their eyes and ears are worth. used by the Americans, according to Hernandes, for the soles of Anyway, they see and hear but little, because they keep their shoes and for belts. I understand that the Tschuktschi use the heads under water. At all events, the animal himself seems to skins for boats; that they stretch it with sticks and use it in the neglect and despise the use of these organs. same way as the Koriaks use the skins of the largest sort of Of all those who have written about the manatee, no one has seals, called “Lachtak.” given a fuller or more careful account than that most curious The fat underlies the cuticle and the skin and covers the and painstaking explorer, Captain Dampier, in his travels, pub- whole body to the depth of a span, and in some parts is almost 9 lished in English in London in 1702. As I read it I could find no inches thick. It is glandulous, stiff, and white, but when exposed fault with it, although a few statements did not correspond with to the sun it becomes yellow like May butter (butyri maialis). Its our animal.1 For instance, he says that there are two species of odor and flavor are so agreeable that it can not be compared manatees, in one of which the eyes are better than the ears, and with the fat of any other sea beast. Indeed, it is by far preferable in the other of which the ears are better than the eyes. What he to that of any other quadruped. Moreover, it can be kept a very says about the manner of hunting the animal, namely, that the long time, even in the hottest weather, without becoming rancid Americans approach without any noise and without speaking, so or strong. When tried out it is so sweet and fine flavored that as not to frighten the manatee, is no doubt true of places where we lost all desire for butter. In flavor it approximates nearly the they are caught in great numbers and have learned by long ex- oil of sweet almonds and can be used for the same purposes as butter. In a lamp it burns clear, without smoke or smell. And, indeed, its use in medicine is not to be despised, for it moves the 1 It is of course to be remembered that Dampier was speaking of the bowels gently, producing no loss of appetite or nausea, even true manatees Trichechus inunguis and T. latirostris. [1899 note] 47 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE MANATEE 48

when drunk from a cup; and, in my opinion, it would do calcu- these animals about this one island that they would suffice to lous persons more good than the masticatory bones or so-called support all the inhabitants of Kamchatka. stones (lapides) of the manatee. The fat of the tail is harder and The manatee is infested with a peculiar insect something like stiffer and so more delicate when tried out. The flesh has a grain a louse, which is wont to occupy and inhabit in great numbers somewhat tougher and coarser than beef, and is redder than the especially the wrinkled arms, the udder, the teats, the pudenda, flesh of land animals; and what is remarkable, even in the hot- the anus, and the rough hollows of the skin. When they bore test days it can be kept in the open air for a very long time through the cuticle and the cutis, here and there wart-like without any bad odor, even though all full of worms. I attribute prominences are produced by the lymphatic moisture that ex- this to the fact that the animal lives entirely upon seaweed and udes. So these insects attract the gulls to perch upon the backs sea plants. These weeds contain a smaller proportion of sulphur of the animals and hunt this dainty with their sharp beaks, thus and more sea salt and nitre. This salt prevents the loss of sul- rendering the animals, which are worried by the vermin, a phur and the softening and decaying of the flesh, preserving it friendly and welcome service. in the same way as salt or brine sprinkled upon meat; but they These insects are for the most part half an inch long, articu- work even more powerfully, as these salts are more intimately lated, six-footed, translucent, white or yellowish. The head is mingled with the substance of the flesh and are combined more oblong, sharp, larger than a millet seed. In front extend two permanently with the sulphurous parts (or particles of sulphur?) short, jointed little antennae half a line long. In place of a lower (cum sulphureis partibus fortius cohaereant). mandible it has two slender, two jointed little arms like a Although the flesh needs to be cooked longer, yet when done shrimp, very sharp and pointed on the end. Furthermore, in ac- it has an excellent taste, not easy to distinguish from that of cordance with the number of his feet, he is composed of six ar- beef. The fat of the calves resembles fresh lard, so that you can ticulations, convex on the back, and one-third of a line wide. But hardly tell the difference; but their flesh is just like veal. When the ring of the thorax is twice as wide, and they grow narrower boiled it soon becomes tender, and if the boiling is continued it toward the tail. The ring of the thorax resembles the half of a swells up like young pork so that it takes up twice as much lentil. On the sides of this a pair of thick claws grows, with two space in the pot as it did before boiling; but the muscles of the joints each. Each claw ends in a flexible point, by means of abdomen, back, and, sides are far better. The flesh does not which it holds fast to the skin of the manatee; the rest of the really refuse to be salted, as many have thought, but the salt legs are rather slender, all ending in prickly points, and gradu- only modifies it, so that it becomes quite like corned beef and ally shorter. The last two are the shortest, and, growing out very excellent in flavor. from the orbicular ring of the tail, form the end of the body it- The internal organs—heart, kidneys, and. liver—are very self and steer the insect as it moves. tough, and we did not try to do much with them, because we had a great abundance of meat without. A full-grown animal weighs about 8,000 pounds, or 80 hun- dredweight, or 200 Russian “pud.” There is so large a number of

is covered with white fur; that it lives near the Kuril Islands, and is more numerous toward Japan; that here it is seldom seen. THE SEA BEAR1 I myself do not know how far to believe this report, for no one has ever seen one, either slain or cast up dead upon the shore. The following is a description of the animal first seen and de- This is certain, whether we consider the appearance of the scribed by Dampier under the name “sea bear”; called by the body or the habits of the beast, it is more nearly related and Russians “Kot,” gentilibus ad Sinum Penschinicum Tarlatshega. more similar to no other land animal than to a bear. The description made on the 28th of May, 1742, on Bering Is- They are never seen in the gulf of the Penshin Sea nor in the land. The largest weighing about 1820 Russian “pud” or 800 land of Kamchatka, nor do they go on shore in the Kuril Islands pounds.2 except very seldom; they are not taken except on three Kuril Islands, and from there to the mouth of the river of Kamchatka, * * * * * in the so-called Bobrovi [sea otter] Sea, from latitude 50° to 56° N. These bears pass by the Kuril Islands in the early spring, Habits and Characteristics and in September they are taken in small numbers about the mouth of the river called Shupanova and from there to Cape Dampier has given us a description of this animal, called Kot by Kronotski in greater numbers. Here, to be sure, between the the Russians, which is, to be sure, brief and imperfect; but he two capes, Kronotski and Shipunski, the sea is quieter and there mentions its characteristics so definitely and plainly and so are more inlets and recesses; hence the animals delay here clearly at first sight that I can not doubt that the animal is his longer as they pass by and more of them are caught. Almost all “sea bear.” that are caught in the spring are females, and have the young Report, as I gather from the account of the people, has de- almost ready for birth within them. The foetuses, when re- clared that the sea bear, as it is called by the Rutheni and other moved, are called “Viporotki.” All that are found are put on the people, is different. They say it is an amphibious sea beast very market. They are no longer to be seen anywhere from the first like the bear, but very fierce, both on land and in the water. of June to the end of August, when, with their young, they re- They told, likewise, that in the year 1736 it had overturned a turn to the south. For many years these migratory animals have boat and torn two men to pieces; that they were very much been a source of wonder and speculalation to the people who alarmed when they heard the sound of its voice, which was like have been interested in hunting them. For, whence did these the growl of a bear, and that they fled from their chase of otter animals come in early spring? Whither were these very fat, and seals on the sea and hastened back to land. They say that it these pregnant beasts, going in countless droves? What are the reasons for this migration? Why do they return with their off- spring in the fall so thin, dry, and weak? And whither are they 1 or fur seal. going? 2 The Miller translation omits 15 pages of measurements and descriptions of the external and internal parts. From the fact that the animals come very fat from the south in early spring and return thither in the fall, it was naturally

51 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA BEAR 52

inferred that they had taken no long journey, and that their are as large as those of a calf. When they are born they have winter quarters could not be very far distant, else they would thirty-two teeth started out on a level with the gums; but there become too thin upon the way. And from the fact that they were are four larger canine teeth, ferocious and suitable for battle, all going toward the east and were never seen beyond Cape still hidden in the gums. These come out after the fourth day. Kronotski or the mouth of the Kamchatka River, either going When the pups are born they are covered with shining black fur east or returning home, they concluded that there must neces- all over. But the fourth or fifth day after birth the fur under the sarily be some land, either island or mainland, near the land of front legs changes color perceptibly and takes on the color of Kamchatka and in a line with Cape Kronotski. the hair of Pliny’s goat; and after a month the belly and sides Among amphibious sea beasts these are the migratory ani- become speckled with an intermixture of hairs of the same mals, like geese, swans, and other sea birds, or like catanadro- color. At birth the males are much larger and darker, and in the mous trout among fishes; the blue foxes, hares, and mice occupy years that follow they get a blacker coat than the females. These this place among quadrupeds. Now the migration of the blue fox latter become almost wholly ashy gray, but have rusty spots is undertaken because food becomes scarce. Birds and fishes mi- under the forelegs. The females differ so much from the males grate to lay their eggs or to indulge undisturbed their sexual in size, weight, and strength, that a careless observer might al- instincts, and, because their strength is reduced or their feathers most take them for a different species, so timid and so little fe- shed, and hence they are unable to flee from their foes until rocious are they. these can grow once more, solitary places are chosen by birds The parents love their young exceedingly. The females, after and quiet lakes by fishes. Accordingly, for a similar reason, parturition, lie in crowds upon the shore with their pups and these northern places are chosen by the sea bears; and these spend much time in sleeping. The pups, however, directly in the desert islands, lying in great numbers between America and first days play together like children, and imitate their parents Asia from 50° to 56° north latitude, are chosen for the following in playing at copulation, and practice fighting until one throws reasons. the other to the ground. When the father sees this he rises up That the mothers may bear their young there upon the land with a growl and hastens to separate the combatants, kisses the and after parturition recruit their strength; further, that the victor, licks him with his tongue, tries with his mouth to throw young may there be brought up and nourished and may grow him upon the ground, and makes vigorous demonstrations of strong enough in three months to follow their parents home in his love for the youngster, who struggles bravely against it. In the autumn. The pups are fed with their mother’s milk for two short, he rejoices that he has a son worthy of himself. But they months. The mothers have nipples corresponding in form, size, are less fond of the lazy and ease-loving pups. Hence some of and position with those of the sea otter, and they are situated the young are always near the father, others near the mother. near the pudenda. They bear one pup at a birth, very seldom The males are polygamous; one often has eight, fifteen, or even two. After parturition they gnaw the umbilical cord off from the fifty wives. He guards them with anxious jealousy, and goes pups with their teeth, as dogs do, and lick it till it is dry, so as to into a rage if another male comes ever so little too near. keep the blood soft until it heals; and they devour the afterbirth Although many thousands of them lie upon the shore to- greedily. The pups are born with their eyes open, and their eyes gether, yet it may always be observed that they are separated 53 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA BEAR 54

into families — the one male lies with his wives, his sons, and by a terrific roaring and growling. While they fight with one daughters, as also his yearling sons who are not yet old enough another they let us alone, and we are able to pass by unmo- to have a harem. One family often numbers as many as 120. For lested. If two fight against one, another comes to his aid, for this reason also they swim in the sea in shoals. they can not bear to see an unequal combat. When there is All the married ones are vigorous, but the aged and those fighting going on, others who are swimming in the sea lift up that are too old for the warfare incident to keeping up a harem, their heads to see the outcome of the contest, and finally they or that are driven to it by impotence or the voluntary desertion are worked into such a rage themselves that they come on shore of their wives, lead a monastic life, and pass it constantly in and mix in crowds with the combatants and make the sight fasting and sleep. These married ones are the fattest of all, and more awful. I often went with my Cossack and attacked one on without the females they come first to the island, like scouts. All purpose and knocked out his eyes; and when I had done that I the males have a strong odor, but theirs is the worst. These old pelted four or five others with stones. When these pursued me I animals are very cross and very savage. They live a whole took refuge near the one I had blinded. As he could not see but month in one place without food or drink; they sleep all the heard his brothers in pursuit and did not know whether they time, but rage with exceeding fierceness at all who pass by. In- were fleeing before us or pursuing us, he would attack his fel- deed, they are so very fierce and jealous that they would a hun- lows. Meanwhile, quite at my ease, I would sit down in some dred times rather die than give up their place. And so if they see high place and watch them fighting together for some hours. a man they go out to get in his way and prevent his passing; one The blind one would attack all that came near, whether enemies of the others meanwhile gets his place and is ready to fight with or friends, and was pursued by all as a common foe. If he fled to him. When we were obliged to come into conflict with them the sea he was pulled out again, and on land was torn by their because of the necessity of continuing our journey, we threw constant blows until he lost all his strength, and falling down great stones at them. They in turn would rage at the stone breathed out his angry soul amid constant groans, and became a thrown at them just as a dog would, and start up in defiance and prey to the hungry droves of blue foxes which attacked him fill the air with their terrible roaring. What we first attempted with their teeth as he lay there still breathing. was to knock out their eyes and break their teeth with stones; While two often fight for an hour, they make a truce, and even though wounded and blind they would not give up their both lie down near one another, panting to get their breath. place or dare to leave it; for if one of them went even a pace When they are recovered they both get up and in gladiatorial away, so many enemies would rise up and attack him with their fashion take a certain place and refuse to leave it as long as the teeth as he fled that he should not leave his place, that even if he fighting. continues. They duck their heads and strike back, and escaped our hands he would be torn to pieces by his fellows. one tries to ward off the blows of the other. As long as they are Indeed, if one leaves his place, the rest run up to prevent his evenly matched they strike only with their front flippers, but as flight; one attacks the other on suspicion of wishing to flee, and soon as one gets the advantage of his adversary he tears him from a single attack so many duels originate that oftentimes for with his teeth and jaws, shakes him, and throws him down. 2 or 3 furlongs by the seashore you can see nothing but duels, Then the others, who have meantime been mere spectators, battles, and a thousand sights absurd but bloody, accompanied seeing this, hurry up to assist the weaker one, as if they were 55 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA BEAR 56

umpires in the fight. With their teeth they inflict wounds as injury which he can not avenge. I have seen captive seals weep large and cruel as if they were made with a saber. At the end of in a similar way. July a sea bear is seldom seen that is not marked with a wound. A second reason why the sea bears in early spring go east to After a battle the first thing they do is to go into the water and these desert islands is doubtless this. By rest, sleep, and a three bathe their bodies. months’ fast, they must rid themselves of their burdensome fat, They fight mostly for one of three reasons: (1) The most bit- in the same way as land bears do in winter. For during the ter warfare is about their wives; trouble begins when one steals months of June, July, and August, they do nothing except sleep those of another, or even tries to take the grown daughters upon land, or lie at ease in one spot like a rock, and look at each from the father’s family. But the females get up at once and fol- other, roar, kiss, and stretch, taking neither food nor drink. One low the one that comes out ahead. (2) They fight for their place in particular I noticed lying in the same spot for a whole month. if one takes the place of another, or if the space is too small and Although at different times I dissected the old males, yet I another, out of lust, gets too near and excites his suspicion. (3) found nothing at all in their stomachs except froth and gastric They fight for right and justice, to settle disputes. juice, and no faeces in the bowels. Furthermore, I noted that They are very fond of their wives and their young, and are meanwhile the layers of fat wasted away more and more, the much feared by both. They get in a towering rage with their size of the body becoming diminished and the skin becoming so young for the most trivial causes and practice a tyrants right. loose that it hung like a sack and swayed with each motion of Often we entered the harem and stole the pups. In these the body. The younger ones that are not so fat begin to cohabit cases, when flight was possible, if the mother through fear left about the first of July; they are active and run here and there, her pups and did not snatch them up in her mouth and take living on land and in the sea by turns. This fact convinced me them with her, but left them where we could get them, the male still further that in accordance with his nature I should call this without entering into any quarrel with us snatched the female animal a bear. up in his teeth, lifted her up high, and threw her in a rage two They cohabit after the manner of the human kind, the female or three times against the rocks with such violence that she lay below and the male above, and especially near evening time do still as if dead. But when her strength returned she would crawl they desire to indulge their passion. An hour before, male and like a worm as a suppliant to his feet, and kiss him, and shed female cast themselves into the sea and swim around quietly tears in such quantities that they ran down on her breast as together. Then they come back together, and the female lies flat from an alembic and made it all wet. For a time he would walk on her back while the male comes up out of the sea upon her. He back and forth roaring and rolling his eyes terribly, and would seizes her in his arms and indulges his passion with the greatest shake his head from side to side like a bear; but at length when heat. During the coition he presses the female down and buries he saw that we were going to go away with the pups, he would her in the sand by his weight so that only her head sticks out, weep in the same way as the female, and just as copiously, so as and he himself digs into the sand with his front feet, so that he to flood his whole breast, even to his feet, with tears. The same presses down and touches the female with his whole belly. For thing occurs when he suffers grievous wounds or some severe this they choose a sandy spot upon the very shore, where the waves come even to the place. So absorbed are they and so for- 57 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA BEAR 58

getful of themselves that I could stand near them for more than before us into the ocean, those that were swimming accompa- a quarter of an hour without being observed. And I should not nied us constantly as we walked along the shore, gazing in have been seen even then had I not struck the male a blow, wonder upon their unusual guests. whereupon with a great uproar he attacked me so wrathfully They swim so rapidly that in an hour they can easily swim that I got away with difficulty. But nevertheless when I gained two German miles. If they are wounded at sea with a harpoon an eminence from which I could look down he went on for an- they draw the boat with the hunter after them so swiftly that other quarter of an hour with what he had begun. the boat seems to fly, and they often overturn the boat and These animals have three different kinds of speech. To pass drown the hunter unless the steersman prevents it by watching away the time while they lie upon the land they cry out, and and skillfully directing his course; they swim with the back their voice is not at all different from the lowing of cows when sloping, and the front flippers are never seen, but the back ones deprived of their calves. In battle they roar and growl like a sometimes project up from the water. On account of the open bear, and if they get the victory they utter a very sharp and of- foramen they stay a long time under water. But they afterwards ten repeated note like our common crickets. But when wounded come up to breathe, with their strength much exhausted; they and overcome by their enemies they groan terribly or hiss like a delight to swim around near the shore and swim now prone and cat or sea otter. now on their backs, but not far under water, so that I was al- When they come out of the sea they shake their bodies and ways able to make out their course. They often raise their hind wipe off their breasts with their back flippers, and smooth their flippers out of the water. When they have breathed enough, or fur. The male places the tip of his lips to those of the female as if when they first start into the water from the land, they plunge to kiss her. When the sun shines clear in the sky they lie down into the water head first like a wheel, as do almost all the larger and raise their back flippers in the air and move them in the sea beasts — the otter, the lion, the balaena orca, and the por- same way as a dog wags his tail. They lie sometimes on their poise. back and sometimes on their belly like a dog, sometimes curled When they climb a rock, they take hold of it with their front up in a ball, sometimes stretched out on one side with their flippers as seals do, and drag the rest of their body behind them, front flippers resting on the side. But although they sleep bending the back like a bow and holding the head low, to give soundly, and though a man may approach softly, nevertheless elasticity to the body. In swiftness they almost if not quite excel they are speedily aware of his presence and get up, whether in- the swiftest runner, and the females are especially fast. There is formed by hearing or the sense of smell I know not. no doubt that many of us would have been killed by them if The very large old ones never run away from a man or a their legs were worth as much on land as they are in water. crowd of men, but prepare at once for battle. Nevertheless, I And, indeed, it is not wise to fight with them even in a large have seen whole herds put to flight if a man whistle. The fe- level place, for there one can get away with difficulty. Steep males flee in haste, and likewise whole droves of adult males, places were always our refuge of safety, because they can not even many thousands, are driven in headlong flight to the sea, if climb up them. They sometimes laid siege to me for more than suddenly, when they feel secure, they are attacked with a great six hours, and at length compelled me, at very great peril of my noise. But when, as often, we drove many thousands of them 59 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA BEAR 60 life, to ascend a precipice, and in that way to escape from the and afterwards for more than two weeks he still stood alive and infuriated beasts. unmoved, like a statue, in the same place. If I were required to state how many I saw on Bering Island In the sea around Kamchatka they very seldom come ashore I should truthfully say that I could not guess — they were on the mainland, but they are wounded at sea by the natives countless, they covered the whole shore. Not infrequently they with an iron spear called “nosok” which detaches from the handle obliged me and my Cossack, in our rambles this way and that and remains in the body, and this iron part of the spear, because through the entire island, to leave the shore and prosecute our inside it is oblique to the wound, sticks fast. It is bound to a journey with difficulty over the tops of the hills. stout thong, the other end of which is held by those sitting in The sea otters are very much in fear of the sea bears, and the boat. But the wounded animal flees very swiftly like an ar- very seldom come in among them, and it is the same with the row, and takes the boat and men along with him, until he seals. But the sea lions live among them in great herds and are pauses, worn out and exhausted with loss of blood. As soon as much feared by them. They always have the best places. The sea he pauses they draw him up to them by the thong and pierce bears do not like to stir up quarrels when the sea lions are pre- him with spears, and if he attempts to upset the boat they crush sent for fear they have these savage beasts as umpires; for they his front flippers and his head with axes and clubs, lift him dead run up immediately, as I have sometimes seen. So also they dare into the boat, and hasten home. By preference in spring they kill not try to prevent their females from playing with the sea lions. the pregnant females and the young males. But they dare not And, by the way, this is a curious fact, that the sea bears are attack the large, old males, but when they see one they say “Si- not found everywhere on the shores of their islands, as are the pang” (the devil), for they mean by that to call the big fellow evil sea cows, the seals, the otter, and the sea lions, but only on the and destructive. So likewise they say if they see a sea lion or a southern shore, which faces Kamchatka. The reason of this is very large sea bear on land when they have no companion or obvious — for they see this part of the island first when they weapons. come on their journey eastward from Cape Kronotski. They are Very many sea bears die a natural death from old age on this not found in the northern part unless they have strayed there by island every year, and as many more fall in battle and die from mistake. the wounds that they have received; so that in some parts the Now about the hunting of these animals. Those that we first whole shore is covered with bones and skulls, as if great battles blinded on land with stones were afterward dispatched with had been fought there. clubs without any artifice. But the beasts are so tenacious of life I can not omit to mention that these animals have a very that two or three men beating only their heads with clubs could large thymus gland, composed of many little glands, and rolled scarcely kill them with 200 blows, and frequently would have to up in a membranous sac. I have made an incision into a branch rest and refresh themselves two or three times. When the cra- of the main artery of the lungs, and when I inserted a little tube nium is broken into little bits and almost all the brains have and blew in with my mouth I discovered that not only the ven- gushed out, and all the teeth have been broken, he still attacks tricles of the heart but also the thymus gland swelled up. I them with his flippers and keeps on fighting. I have purposely would rather not suggest what others may conclude in regard broken the skull and put out the eyes of one and then left him, 61 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA BEAR 62

to this, unless I could make many more experiments on other will perform for me and others a most friendly service if he will sea beasts. pour it all into a gold or silver urn. As to the fact that I have Here, at the end, I will mention that it is a very curious thing noted the minutest circumstances, I did it for this reason: that I what the explorer, Dampier, says of the Island Ferdinand (Juan might omit nothing that I learned from careful watching. For Fernandez), below 36° south latitude, he asserts that there upon the rest, I guarantee that I say nothing that is not most true; an the land he found the whole shore covered with countless herds account can always be made shorter, but not longer or fuller, if of seals, sea lions, and sea bears, in the same way as we found it it has been from the outset restricted within rather narrow in Bering Island. This does not lead me to believe that these limits. animals come hither from those Southern latitudes, for this dis- tance would be far too great, but I gather from it two facts: first, that the sea beasts of the southern hemisphere are the same, or not very different, from those of the northern in about the same longitude; and, second, it is credible that our sea bears spend the winter at about the same degree of north latitude. Perchance some time fate will grant that since we have found their sum- mer camping ground others may somewhere discover their win- ter home; if this be not the land called “Compagnie land” per- chance it may be a land lying not far away and some time to be discovered. I have had two pictures made, of which the former repre- sents a male resting on a rock, as they are generally seen; and the second, a smaller female lying upon her back. I have her represented in this position chiefly for the reason that the shape of the hind leg may appear, and this could not be brought out true to nature if she were in sitting position. 1 As to style and arrangement of matter, pressure of duties does not permit me to spend too much time in perfecting any one thing, unless I am to allow many things to go to waste upon my hands. I therefore set out my porridge in carefully made earthen vessels. If the vessel is an offense to any one, he

1 Tab. XV, online at http://dz-srv1.sub.uni- goettingen.de/sub/digbib/loader?ht=VIEW&did=D151405

THE SEA LION 64

him even on land in open battle, but he is caught by guile when off his guard and quite at ease, or even sound asleep. When the THE SEA LION1 beast is asleep on land, the hunter who has most confidence in his strength and swiftness, creeps silently up to it with the wind Description of the beast of the sea named by Dampier the sea in his face and plunges into it under its fore flippers an iron or lion, by the Kurils, Kamchatkans, and Russians “Siwutscha.” bone spear called a “nosok.” It is made to fly out of its socket and Described on Bering Island the 20th of June 1742. is fastened to a thong made from the skin of this very animal. The other hunters keep the thong, which is wound several times around a rock or a stake driven deep into the ground. * * * * * While the beast that has been wounded and aroused attempts to get away, the other men shoot arrows at it from a distance, or Habits and characteristics transfix it with a second spear fastened to a thong. At length when its strength is gone they pierce it with spears and kill it These beasts are indeed terrible to look upon when alive; and with clubs. But when they attack it they attack it asleep on the they far surpass the sea bear in strength and size as well as in shore where there are few rocks; they shoot poisoned arrows, endurance of the different parts. They are hard to overcome and and then run away. The animal is compelled by the poison to fight most viciously when cornered. They also give to the eyes come on shore, as the salt sea water increases the pain of the and mind the impression of a lion. Nevertheless, they fear so wounds; and then, if the place is a convenient one, he is stabbed, much the very sight of man that if they see one even at a dis- or otherwise, if left to himself, he will die of the poison in tance they rush in headlong flight from the land into the sea. twenty-four hours. All who have the skill and daring to hunt But if, when they are sound asleep, a man comes up near and this beast, and who have killed many, are held in great honor by wakes them by a blow from his stick or by a loud noise) they their fellows, and are regarded as heroes and braves. Accord- take to flight at once, panting like a furnace, and with their ingly the love of glory, as well as the excellence of the flesh, limbs shaking so with fear that they can not control them. But if turns many to the hunt and makes them ready for hazardous one of them is cornered and all chance for flight is shut off he enterprises. They often load their boats with two or even three turns against his enemy with a great roar, shakes his head in of these animals, till they threaten to sink in the water. But they wrath, rages, cries out, and puts even the bravest man to flight. are so skillful that this seldom happens in the smooth sea, even The first time that I tried this experiment was almost the last of though the rim of the boat may be even with the surface of the me. On this account this animal is never hunted at sea by the water. They consider it a great disgrace if, through fear of Kamchatkan tribes, because he overturns the boat of the hunters death, they abandon the quarry that they have once secured, so and slays them most savagely. Nor does anyone dare engage that if their hands should not avail to bail out the water they would sink. To hunt this beast the bravest men go out to sea in

1 The Miller translation omits 2 pages of introductory description. their light canoes four or five German miles to the uninhabited island called Alait. And it not infrequently happens that the

65 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA LION 66

sailors without a compass are taken by a contrary wind four, periment I have thrown young sea bears and equally young sea five, or even eight days out to sea without anything to eat, and lions into the water; but they were so far from being able to see neither island nor mainland, and have only the rising and swim or to use their flippers well that they beat the waves ir- setting of the sun and moon to direct them. regularly with their flippers and hurried to the shore. The pups The blubber, as well as the sweet flesh, is well flavored and are twice as large as those of sea bears. highly prized, and the gelatinous flippers are considered a prime Although these animals are exceedingly afraid of man, yet I delicacy. The fat is not greasy, like that of seals and whales, but have seen them grow used to him and become tame by meeting is stiff, and resembles that of sea bears in color, but not in flavor him frequently without injury, and especially at that time when and smell. The fat of the young is sweeter than mutton tallow the pups had not yet learned to swim easily. I lived a season in and resembles the marrow of leg bones. From the skin they the midst of a herd of them, and for six whole days on a spot make thongs, the soles of shoes, and even shoes themselves and above them, where from my hut I watched their habits carefully. leggins. They lay around me in every direction; they watched my fire They are polygamous. One male has two, three, or four fe- and what I did, and did not run away any longer even when I males. The pups are born on land about the beginning of June walked around among them and took their pups and killed them — one only at a birth, and are suckled by their mothers. They and examined them. They practiced coition, fought jealously for come together in August and September, hence the young re- their wives and for the best places, and fought most bitterly in mains in the womb nine months, as indeed seems reasonable. just the same way and with the same motions and the same heat They copulate like the sea bears. The males hold the females in as the sea bears do. One from whom a female had been taken great respect and do not treat them so harshly as the sea bears fought with all the rest for three whole days, and was wounded do their wives. They delight exceedingly in the caresses of the all over in more than a hundred places. The sea bears never females and count their affection worthy of much more demon- mingle in their fights, but if a quarrel arises they run away, strative return. The males, like the females, have a very indiffer- looking all around them. They yield them the choice of places ent love for the pups. The mothers when asleep sometimes and allow their females and pups to indulge in various sports, crush the young at their udders by their weight and kill them, and dare not object. As far as possible they avoid all dealings as I have often seen, and they were not the least bit disturbed with the sea lions, but these, uninvited and unwelcome, often when, as often, I cut the throats of the young, even before the mix in their quarrels. The old and decrepit among them grow eyes of their parents and threw the entrails to them. The pups white around the head, and beyond all doubt these beasts are are not so lively and active as those of the sea bears, but sleep very long-lived. They scratch their ears and head with their all the time or play a little in a lazy way, and indulge in amatory hind flippers, as the bears do, and stand, swim, lie down, and sports. At eventide the mothers with the young go out into the walk in the same way. They low like cows and the young bleat sea and swim quietly near the shore. When the pups get tired of like sheep, and while I was among them it seemed to me as if I swimming they are wont to perch upon the backs of their moth- were playing shepherd and were mingling with herds of cattle. ers and rest. But the mother rolls over like a wheel and shakes The old and worn-out emit an odor, but far milder and less of- the lazy pups off, and accustoms them to swimming. As an ex- fensive than that of the sea bears. They are found in this island 67 DE BESTIIS MARINIS

in spring, as well as in winter and summer, but only in certain parts — those that are rocky and near precipices. Nevertheless, others come here every year along with the sea bears. I have THE SEA OTTER1 seen them in great numbers along the American shores. They are found in Kamchatka almost all the time. They do not go above 56° north latitude. They are hunted a great deal near * * * * * Cape Kronotski and around the island Ostrovnaia, around Avatcha Gulf, and from here as far as Cape Lopatka. They are Habits and Characteristics found in the Kuril Islands and almost as far as Matmej Island. Captain Spangberg on his chart has named a certain island from These animals are very beautiful, and because of their beauty the number of these animals that he found upon it, and from a they are very valuable, as one may well believe of a skin the cliff overhanging their city, the “Palace of Sivutch.” The sea lion hairs of which, an inch or an inch and a half in length, are very is never seen in the Penshin Sea. The reasons why these beasts soft, very thickly set, jet black and glossy. The soft underfur come hither in June, July, and August, are for quiet, for parturi- also among the longer hairs is black; but the tips, or the hairs tion, for rearing and teaching the pups, and for copulation. Be- from the middle on, are black, while the bases or roots are fore and after this period they are found in greater numbers on whitish, lustrous like silk, and silvery. The most valuable skins the shores of Kamchatka. are almost perfectly black; others are found with silvery fur As to the food of these beasts, they prey upon fish and seal shining quite white all over, but they occur very rarely. Al- especially, and also upon otter and other sea animals. The old though as time goes on they change the color of their hair, they ones eat little or nothing at all in June and July, but take their are still much more constant than the sables, and sable skins ease and sleep, and at the same time become very thin. never shine with so deep a natural blackness as the otters. The one thing to be deplored is that the skin is too thick and heavy, and for that reason is less pleasing to the eyes of the gentler sex; for the skin of an adult otter weighs, on an average, 3½ pounds. Rarely is an otter caught that is black all over; the head of the best grade of otters is silvery gray; the cheaper grade of ot- ter has a head of a tawny color and yellowish fur; and the lowest grade of otter is that which has no long hair, and is clad only in short, dirty-gray fur. With these animals matters stand like

1 The Miller translation omits 15 pages of measurements and descrip- tions of the external and internal parts.

69 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA OTTER 70

this: the skins of certain animals always grow red hairs, rarely more beautiful hairs on their backs and longer ones on the belly; very long, while the animals themselves are stupid, sluggish, the flesh of the females is more tender, more savory, and more surly, sleepy; they lie forever asleep upon the icy rocks; they delicious because of the distribution of the fat. In the former move slowly, and can be captured without any painstaking or respect they are different from quadrupeds and birds, for in ingenuity, as if they knew that because of the inferiority of their these classes it is the males that are covered with the more hides they were not very seriously exposed to death. Many of beautiful hair and feathers and the brighter colors. them, however, have most beautiful tails, covered with long, They do change their hair, however, like land animals and black fur. From these considerations I have come to two conclu- birds, but with this two-fold difference: some lose their hair in sions. (1) That the skins of sluggish animals are overgrown the months of July and August, but they lose very little of it; the with only short hair, for the simple reason that in summer time, others change their color somewhat and come out a darker while they roll about in the sand, the longer hairs are worn off gray, and are for that reason called by the Russians and mer- by the constant friction, and in the winter, while they lie upon chants “Letnie Bobry,” and are sold at a smaller price. The most the damp ice, the longer hairs stick fast to the ice, and are pulled prized skins are those which are taken from animals in March, off when the animal moves. This I have seen with my own eyes. April, and May. (2) That black hair, through the influence of air and sunlight, The adult males are called “Bobry,” the females, “Matka,” and grows lighter and feebler, and so the tail, as it is curled under the one-year-olds, which have taken on the soft, short fur, the lying animal, is less exposed to friction and to the rays of “Koschloki”; the cubs are called “Medviedki,” or “little bears,” be- the sun, and so preserves the original blackness and length of cause they have very long, thin, tawny hair like bears; their hair. The more active and cunning and fleet the animals are, the skins can scarcely be distinguished from the skins of the young more beautiful is the fur with which they are covered, and again, bear, but after five months they lose their hair, and then they unlike the others, they are captured but rarely, and that only by are called “Koschloki,” as intermediating between the cubs and well-laid snares. Such animals are so careful about their own the one-year-olds, and are then covered only with soft, downy safety that if they come out on dry land alone to sleep, they look fur. around very carefully, and, inasmuch as their eyes are not very Upward of fifteen years ago, the finest skins were exchanged strong when on land, they turn their noses in every direction by the natives in the land of Kamchatka for knives and firearms, before they go to. sleep, to make sure that no man is in the and were sold by Russian merchants for 5 or 6 rubles; those of neighborhood — and then, even though they perceive no sign medium quality sold for 4 rubles; those from the Yakut sold for whatever of danger, they do not get far away from the sea. They 8 or 10 rubles. But ever since the Chinese began to appreciate often wake up with a start, look around, and never sleep very and earnestly to covet these wares the finest skins of the adult soundly. But if whole herds sleep together on the land, the fin- animal were sold even in the land of Kamchatka for 25and 30 est looking leaders [of the herd] stand on sentinel duty, and rubles; those of medium quality for 17, while 1-year-olds (those arouse the rest if any danger threatens. called “Koschloki”) brought 8 rubles, and cubs 1 ruble. Tails were The skins of females can be distinguished from those of held at a particularly high price, and were purchased for 1½ or males at the very first sight, because they have shorter, finer, even 2 rubles, and were much sought after for caps and mittens. 71 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA OTTER 72

Very few are brought to Russia; almost all are taken to shin Sea, nor are they observed to go beyond the third Kuril China, where the best ones command a price of 70 and 80 ru- Island. From this fact, and from the hunting of the animal, the bles. In 1735 and 1736 they were quite ready to offer 20 rolls of ocean from the neighborhood of Lopatka to the Promontory of “Kitaika” for one skin, while the Russians on their return to Kronotski has received the name of “Bobrovi Sea.” For a long Irkutsk obtained for it 100 rubles. time back it has been believed by the people, as well as by Rus- These skins, moreover, being rather heavy, are for that rea- sians, and asserted that this animal is not an Asiatic, but a son dearer to the Chinese than the skins of sables and foxes, and stranger in that region and a foreigner from other lands that lie they are better suited to increase the weight of the too light silk quite near Kamchatka, where they are taken every year. When gowns. In addition to their beauty they make the silk fit more the east wind blows for two days together in the winter time, closely to the body and resist the wind better; and for those rea- they are floated over with the ice on which they have been ly- sons the Chinese make of this fur borders of a hand’s breadth ing, and so are caught. Those which escape death in the winter and put them around their robes on every side; and this has be- stay in the summer about the rugged and rocky shores of Kam- come the fashion also with both sexes, not among the tribes of chatka and the Kuril Islands, give birth to their young, and re- Kalmuc and Siberia only, but also in Russia. In the land of Kam- main there; for they have not the strength to swim away, and, chatka nothing is considered a finer adornment than a dress on account of the foramen ovale of the heart, they can not while sewed up like a sack (a “Parka” they call it), made out of the swimming over the sea seek their food in its depths; neither can white skins of reindeer fawns (called “Püschiki ” ) and having a they hold out against hunger for three or four days. border of sea otter fur around it. Mittens and caps are also made The hunting of the otter is on this wise: if the winter has of sea otter fur. been cold and great quantities of ice are repeatedly blown over, In addition to their weight, these skins have also this disad- there will be an abundance of sea otter not only in winter, but vantage, that they retain too little heat about the body and be- also, from those that survive, in the summer; and, on the other come moist, although, because of their thickness, they do afford hand, from the year 1740 to 1743 there was no cold weather in excellent protection against the violence of the wind. this locality, no ice could be frozen about the shores and Up to a few years ago the people there also used to make brought over there, and so the otter were few and the hunting their clothes out of those skins, as they did long ago out of the exceedingly limited. skins of foxes and sables (Zobelae), but that custom has gone out The region famous for the hunting of the otter twenty years of date now that their value has increased so much, and they are ago extended from the mouth of the Kamchatka to the not very much aggrieved at that change of fashion, for the peo- Tchaschma, and was more renowned for that than any other ple there have always looked on dog skins as warmer, more place; now, however, it is but little and rarely used. Hunters beautiful, and more lasting. came in greater numbers about the Promontory of Kronotski, The hides of the cubs have this advantage, that they heat the which has come to be most frequented next after the mouth of body less than fox skins do. the river Kamchatka; but there also the catch has grown These animals are captured only on the shore of Kamchatka, smaller. About Ostrovnaia, the Gulf of Avatcha, the Promon- from 50° to 56° north latitude. They are never seen in the Pen- tory of Lopatka, and the first three Kuril Islands they are now 73 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA OTTER 74 caught in much greater numbers than before. The Penschin Sea “lapki”), and either alone or attended by dogs go out upon the they do not enter, although crabs and other shellfish are to be ice. With their clubs they kill the otter they find in a few mo- found there in at least as great if not greater numbers than on ments, moving continually the while that they may not break the Kamchatkan shore. But why they do not go beyond the first the ice. They have the skins carefully pulled off, and leave the three Kuril Islands, although they might easily pass from one to carcasses, if they be too far from the shore. Meanwhile the dogs the other and so on clear to Japan, admits of a three-fold expla- hunt out others. When the otter catches sight of the dog and nation. (1) Because the sea lions and sea bears, inhabiting the the dog stops, the otter is brought terrified to bay, and attempts desert islands in very great numbers, devour the sea otter and to hide, until the hunter, following the footprints of the dog, injure them in every possible manner, the latter are very much comes upon his quarry and dispatches it. So eagerly do they afraid of them and are driven away. (2) There is never any ice in pursue the hunt that they often go out so far upon the ice that those regions, and so no sea otter are ever brought. (3) The dis- they get out of sight of land. tance between America and the farther Kuril Islands is very If, as often happens, the ice is brought in with a gale or tem- great, and there are no islands in between, and so these animals pest and a heavy fall of snow, the catch, is even larger, but cannot reach them by swimming. Besides, these creatures are fraught with greater danger; for when the hunters can not look not naturally of a roving disposition but if they might find a ahead nor see the holes in the ice at their feet, they must follow suitable place designed, as it were, for them, even so the inhabi- their dog or mere blind chance. This most venturesome chase tants of the first islands are so bent on hunting them that those can not be witnessed from the land without terror. The ice rises which have managed to escape in winter rarely escape in sum- and falls with the waves; the hunters walk now upon a moun- mer. They hunt the otter in all seasons, but in most diverse tain which was but a moment before a valley or a deep pit; again manner according to the demands of the season. They are cap- they are lifted up on high, and again they sink and disappear tured in greatest numbers in winter, particularly in the months from sight. But the best and easiest hunting takes place when of February, March, and April, but their capture is made at the the ice remains on the shore for a long time; for while the tem- expense of tremendous exertion, great daring, and not infre- pest lasts, the otter, not knowing whether they are on the quently loss of human life. When in the months before men- floating ice or on the land, go inland 5, 10, and even 15 fur- tioned the east wind blows for two or three days in succession, a longs. For they are misled by the roaring of the wind in the vast quantity of ice is carried over from the American shore; the trees and bushes and think they are going toward the sea, and ice comes over even more quickly if it has been carried away in that what they hear is the roar of the waves. In this way a single the autumn and held in the channel between the islands. While huntsman often kills as many as thirty or forty or more, and the wind blows, the hunters lie in wait in their straw-covered saves the meat as well as the skin. huts; the ice drifts in in so great quantities that it fills the sur- While the people hunt upon the ice, they are generally very face of the sea for several miles out from land in the region of careful to observe the winds, for fear that by adverse winds they the Kuril Islands, and oftentimes connects the Promontory of be carried, as not infrequently happens, out into the open sea. It Lapatka with the first island. Then the hunters, arming them- is not a rare thing for them to float up and down with the ice selves with clubs and knives, put on their snowshoes (called upon the waves for three, four, five, and even six days, and then, 75 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA OTTER 76 with favoring fortune and favoring winds, to be brought in satisfy the avarice of man they are never caught upon the again and come safely to shore. When the wind blows from the mainland, or very rarely, when they have come there unaware. other quarter the ice is drifted away. If it drifts along the shore, (4) They are caught in nets. The nets are spread above the wa- the hunters follow the ice continually, for while the ice is drift- ter and tied with stones to hold them firmly in position in not ing away, whether by day or by night, the otter try to get back very deep places, where sea weed grows in great quantities, for upon it again, and so the latter part of the hunt is often richer the otter feed upon shellfish and crustaceans that live concealed than the beginning. The hunters wear snowshoes, in order that in the sea weeds, and there they are caught in the nets or are the ice, which is often very thin, may bear their weight, and killed by the hunter, who comes upon them in his boat. Some- keep them from breaking through. Each shoe is from 5 to 6 feet times they carve out wooden otters, paint them black, and set long, 8 inches wide, and is fastened to the foot with straps. them afloat. The otter, seeing these images, swim up and in- As this hunt takes place upon the ice, it is considered good dulge in various strange capers about them, and by this trick news all through the Kuril Islands, Lopatka, Kronotski, and are caught. When they are caught in the nets they are so frantic Avatcha that the ice has come. Moreover, besides the otter, that in their despair they bite off their front feet, but if a male seals also and sea lions are brought in upon the ice. and a female are caught together they both lacerate their skins The hunting of the otter is planned for in the winter time, terribly and knock out their eyes. because the colder, windier, and stormier the winter the greater We killed them on Bering Island with spears, nets, and, the catch, and the milder the winter the poorer the catch. Al- when they were lying asleep or in the act of copulating, with though in the years 1740, 1741, and 1742 great quantities of ice clubs. with great numbers of otter drifted in, still the catch was very They were found there in so great abundance that from the insignificant; but the reason was that the ice was very thin and beginning our numbers did not suffice to kill them. They cov- would not hold the hunters. ered the shore in great droves, and as the animal is not migra- In summer the otter are caught in four ways. (1) While lying tory, but is born and bred there, they are so far from fearing upon their backs asleep at sea they are speared from boats with man that they would come up to our fires and would not be harpoons. (2) Even when awake they may be driven about in the driven away until, after many of them had been slain, they sea by two boats until they are tired out and then speared, for learned to know us and run. away. Nevertheless we killed up- they can not live underwater for more than two minutes with- ward of 800 of them, and if the narrow limits of the craft we out breathing. If pursued moderately, therefore, they swim constructed had permitted we should have killed three times as along and soon get so out of breath that they can flee no farther many. and are forced to stop. (3) When the tide is out they take refuge As to the beauty of the animal, and particularly of its skin, on the rocks that rise up above the surface of the sea. There this sea otter is alone incomparable, without a peer; it surpasses they sleep and are killed by the hunters with clubs. Before the all other inhabitants of the vast ocean, and holds the first rank advent of the Russians they used in the same way to come out in point of beauty and softness of its fur. on land to sleep on the shores of Kamchatka and the Kuril Is- As to its habits, it loves to live both in the water and on the lands; but ever since they began to be hunted for their skins to land, but for the sake of sweet peace the otter inhabits in great 77 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA OTTER 78 droves, by preference, the great islands of the ocean. For get- so, no matter how many times it is struck upon the back. But if ting food it seeks, when the tide is out, the shallow, rocky reefs one hits it on the tail, which is extended out as the animal runs, overgrown with seaweed, and there devours crustaceans, mus- it turns about and faces the striker in the most absurd fashion. sels, clams, snails, limpets, polyps, cuttlefish. Only when forced But more frequently it happens that they fall down at the first by hunger to do so, do they eat seaweed, but they eat fish, smelt, blow and pretend that they are dead, and then as soon as they and a little fish called in Kamchatkan idiom the “Uiky,” which is see that we turn our attention to others they suddenly take to washed in by the spring tides in countless numbers. They are flight. From this it would appear that the animal is very cun- also fond of meat, I have seen an otter eating the flesh of an- ning. Oftentimes we would drive them into narrow places on other otter which had been skinned and thrown away. It may purpose, without any thought of doing them any harm; we therefore be concluded that this animal is omnivorous. would hold our clubs ready, and they would fall down fawning In the winter they lie some upon the ice, some upon the and looking around in every direction. Then they would slowly shore. In summer they go up the rivers and penetrate even to slink past us like dogs, and as soon as they saw that they were the lakes, where they greatly enjoy the fresh water. On warm out of danger they would hurry with mighty leaps to the sea. days they seek the valleys and shady recesses of the mountains When they stand up they keep their necks extended in line and frolic there like monkeys. They surpass all other amphibia with the body, and the hinder part, because of the length of the in play and frolicsomeness, and in fleetness of foot. legs, stands higher. On the land they lie, as dogs do, with the body curled up. As They swim now upon the belly, now upon one side, and they come out of the sea, like dogs they shake off all the water again flat upon the back; they also swim standing bolt upright before they lie down to sleep; then with their paws they wash in the water. their faces, just as cats do, smooth out their bodies, straighten They play together, and, like human beings, embrace with out their fur, turn their head from one side to the other as they their arms and kiss each other. If they escape the club, they ges- look themselves over, and seem to be greatly pleased with their ticulate in a very ridiculous manner, as if making fun of the personal appearance. I have also seen the males play with their hunter. With one paw raised over their eyes, as if bothered by genital organs like monkeys. When they are engaged in sleek- the rays of the sun, they watch the man, continually rubbing ing their fur they are so intent upon it that they can be killed their pudenda as they lie upon their backs, and then go off into readily. the water, still watching the man steadily and urinating as they A swift runner can scarcely overtake an otter when it runs, go, in the same way as sea bears and whales also do. for it runs with many windings, in a fashion to mislead. When it They copulate at all seasons, and so throughout the year the sees its path to the sea intercepted and finds itself exhausted mothers are seen busy with their cubs. Whether they give birth and out of breadth, it puts up its back like a cat, threatens to twice within one season I would not venture to decide; but I leap upon its pursuer, and spits like an angry cat, but we, being have seen, and I have sometimes killed, mothers with two cubs, conscious that its anger was not dangerous, were not frightened one of which was a year old and the other three or four months off; and when it receives a vigorous blow upon the head it falls old. So much is certain, they never, or at most very rarely, give upon the ground, covers its eyes with its paws, and keeps them birth to more than one at a time. The first year after they are 79 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA OTTER 80

born they do not copulate, but the second year they do. The wailing of an infant; and when the young ones heard their period of gestation is eight or nine months; and so they bring mothers’ voice they wailed, too. I sat down in the snow and the forth perfectly developed young, with eyes open and with all mothers came close up and stood ready to take the young ones their teeth; the four canine teeth are smaller than common, just from my hand if I should set them down in the snow. After as I have observed, also, in the case of the sea bears, seals, and eight days I returned to the same place and found one of the sea lions. females at the spot where I had taken the young, bowed down They suckle their young almost a whole year. They preserve with the deepest sorrow. Thus she lay, and I approached with- their conjugal affection most constantly, and the male does not out any sign of flight on her part. Her skin hung loose, and she serve more than one female. They live together both on sea and had grown so thin in that one week that there was nothing left on laud. The 1-year-old cubs, the “koschloki,” live with their par- but skin and bones. This happened several times in succession. ents until they set up housekeeping on their own score. Barely, It happened one other time that, in company with Mr. Plenis- therefore, are females seen apart from cubs two or three months ner, I saw in the distance a mother otter sleeping with a year- old, which are called “medviedki.” old cub. When she caught sight of us the mother ran to her off- The females always give birth to their young on land. spring, woke him up, and warned him to flee; but, as he pre- Whether in the sea or on land, they carry their cubs in their ferred to go on sleeping rather than to run away, she picked him mouths; but when they sleep at sea they fold their young in up in her paws in spite of himself and rolled him like a stone their arms just as mothers do their babes. They throw the down into the sea. young ones into the water to teach them to swim, and when On land they can not see very well, but their sense of smell tired out they bring them to shore again and kiss them just like is very keen. They ought, therefore, to be hunted from the lee human beings. They toss the young out into the sea and with side. Their sense of hearing is just as sharp. their paws catch them when tossed, like a ball; and with them The cry of the sea otter is very like the cry of an infant. They they engage in all the delightful and gentle games that a fond doubtlessly live many years. They never breed strife among mother can play with her children. When the mother sleeps on themselves, but always live on the best of terms with one an- shore the cubs keep watch, clinging to her dugs or arms. They other. They are very much afraid of sea lions and sea bears, and embrace their young with an affection that is scarcely credible. they do not like the company of seals. Accordingly the places When hunters press upon them, whether by land or by sea, they which those animals frequent are carefully avoided by the otter. seize their young with their mouths and never let go of them The flesh of the adult otter is much more tender and savory except when compelled by extreme necessity or death itself. than that of the seal. The flesh of the female is best, for it is fat- And so they are killed often when they might have got away ter and more tender, and the fat lies between little membranes. themselves. I have sometimes deprived females of their young It is for that reason a little hard. In the case of pregnant moth- on purpose, sparing the mothers themselves, and they would ers, the nearer they are to parturition the fatter they are. In this weep over their affliction just like human beings. I once carried respect they are different from land animals. The flesh of the off two little ones alive, and the mothers followed me at a dis- young otter is most delicious; it can not easily be distinguished tance like dogs, calling to their young with a voice like the from the flesh of an unweaned lamb, whether roasted or boiled, 81 DE BESTIIS MARINIS THE SEA OTTER 82

and the gravy from its preparing, in either way, is most deli- after that they scrape it with shells and glass, and finally cious. Otter flesh was our principal food on Bering Island; it smooth it down with pumice stone. During this time they knead was also our universal medicine. By its use we were saved from the inside with a wooden hook and with the hands until it scurvy, and no one got sick of it, although we ate it every day grows soft with the fermented dough of the fish eggs and all the half raw and without bread. The liver, heart, and kidneys tasted fat disappears and the skin comes out soft and pliable. All other exactly like those of the calf. The natives of Kamchatka and the skins which are sold to traders are exported without any prepa- Kuril Islands give the first preference to the flesh of eagles, the ration, for it has been observed that these undressed skins keep second to otter’s flesh. The liver and kidneys they eat raw, and their native color better. declare them most excellent. Not only the natives but also the I have wished to report about the sea otter what I have seen Russians use scrapings from the bony base of the penis as the as an eye witness, and also what I have heard from the natives, proper remedy to cure the tertian fever. in hunting them. The skins go through the following processes before they I have had two pictures made: Fig. 1 (Tab. XVI) represents are ready for use. (1) After the skin has been taken from the an otter walking upon land, fig. 2 represents one swimming animal shreds of muscle are cut from it with a knife. This proc- with her cub in the water.1 ess the Russians call by the Slavonic term, “bolon sniat.” (2) Then the skin is stretched to its utmost; for, besides the fact that the price increases with the size, the skins thus prepared become lighter, although the fur does become less beautiful. (3) After this they straighten out the hairs with bones from the wings of gulls, and sleep upon them, naked, for several weeks to make them glossier, nicer, and more beautiful. This process the Russians call “vyspat bobr.” (4) While the Cossacks are getting the skins from the natives they frequently beat the skins upon the snow with sticks, and if the fur is gray, or any other color than black, they color them with alum and empetrum berries cooked to the proper consistency with fish oil. This makes them glossy black. But the fraud can be detected — pull out of a dyed skin a single hair and it will show three colors: at the end, the black of the dye; from the middle down, the native color; and, finally, the base of the hair. While the skins are being prepared for use, the natives treat them also as follows: they smear the inside of the skin with a 1 Tab. XVI, online at http://dz-srv1.sub.uni- powder made of dried fish eggs, as the Rutheni do with simple goettingen.de/sub/digbib/loader?ht=VIEW&did=D151406 yeast; then they roll it up and lay it away for several days, and

Works by Georg Wilhelm Steller

Ausführliche Beschreibung von sonderbaren Meerthieren. Halle, 1753. (German edition of De bestiis marinis.) De bestiis marinis. In Novi commentarii Academiae Scientiarvm Imperialis Petropolitanae, Tome 2. St. Petersburg, 1751. http://www-gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/cgi-bin/digbib.cgi? PPN350003793 “The Beasts of the Sea,” in The Fur Seals and Fur-Seal Islands of the North Pacific Ocean, edited by David Starr Jordan, Part 3 (Washington, 1899), pp. 179–218. Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka. Frankfurt, 1774. (English translation: Steller's history of Kamchatka, edited by Marvin W. Falk; translated by Margritt Engel and Karen Willmore. Fairbanks, AL, 2003.) Journal of a Voyage with Bering 1741–1742. Edited by O. W. Frost; translated by Margritt A. Engel and O. W. Frost. Stanford, CA, 1988. Observationes quaedam nidos et ova avium concernentes. In Novi commentarii Academiae Scientiarvm Imperialis Petropolitanae, Tome 4. St. Petersburg, 1758. http://www-gdz.sub.uni- goettingen.de/cgi-bin/digbib.cgi?PPN350423350 Observationes generales universam historiam piscium concernentes. In Novi commentarii Academiae Scientiarvm Imperialis Petropolitanae, Tome 3. St. Petersburg, 1753. http://www- gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/cgi- bin/digbib.cgi?PPN350411190 Reise von Kamtschatka nach Amerika mit dem Commandeur-capitan Bering. St. Petersburg, 1793.

Useful Links Illustrations

Hans Rothauscher, Die Stellersche Seekuh (in German and Steller’s field sketch and map English) http://www.hans-rothauscher.de/steller/steller_d.htm

Sirenian International, Inc. Fredericksburg, VA 22401 USA http://www.sirenian.org/sirenians.html and http://www.sirenian.org/stellers.html

Weinstein, B. and J. Patton. 2000. "Hydrodamalis gigas" (On- line), Animal Diversity Web. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/informa tion/Hydrodamalis_gigas.html.

Steller’s Sea Cow (Hydrodamalis gigas)

87 DE BESTIIS MARINIS ILLUSTRATIONS 88

Photographs from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Digital Library System. Steller’s Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus)

Northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus)

Photo: Forrest B. Lee

Photo: Tom Early 89 DE BESTIIS MARINIS

Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris)